Don’t take it from me; take it from Michael Gerson in the Washington Post:
The most surprising revelation in recent presidential polling is not that Donald Trump has low favorability in key states — a welcome indicator of national sanity — but rather that Hillary Clinton’s numbers are almost as bad. Put another way: A vacuous, gaffe-prone, xenophobic, conspiracy-minded reality television star whose nomination, by most accounts, would destroy the GOP has about the same approval ratings in Colorado and Iowa as the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination. A recognition begins to dawn: Democrats may be coronating a wounded queen.
Wee, what was your first cue? The eight years of investigations of the Bill Clinton administration? Or the more recent stuff, like Benghazi and the emails? Should the Democrats be foolish enough to actually nominate the Dowager Empress of Chappaqua for president, their candidate will sure rank as the most corrupt and least-skilled politician ever to stand for national office.
Horse-race polling conducted early in a presidential contest means very little, as President Fred Thompson and President Howard Dean can attest. But while early polls are not predictive of outcomes, they can be indicative of weaknesses. In a recent CNN/ORC poll, 57 percent of adults did not consider Clinton honest and trustworthy. According to an AP-Gfk poll, only 31 percent of likely voters think the word “honest” describes Clinton well. And in a recent Quinnipiac poll of key states, 59 percent of Iowa voters, 55 percent of Virginia voters and 62 percent of Colorado voters did not believe that Clinton is honest and trustworthy.
Clinton’s response? “People should, and do, trust me.” A statement not particularly worthy of trust.
No, people shouldn’t and don’t, not unless they were born yesterday with an Obama baby pacifier in their mouths. Tick, and may I add, tock:
Senior Democrats are seeing what the rest of us see — a Clinton campaign that is burning money and losing ground. At what point do party leaders begin a panicked search for alternatives? Not yet. But when? “When public sentiment consistently falls in this [polling] category,” a former Democratic official told me. “When people say enough is enough and can’t deal with the Clinton psychodrama anymore. They [both Clintons] feel this is the normal condition.”
This former official thinks that Clinton has the month of August to right her listing campaign. If that doesn’t happen, Vice President Joe Biden’s colorful trial balloon may rise. And when a candidate’s main argument is inevitability — as Clinton’s is — doubts are a crack in the ice that quickly spreads.
I still think the Democrat standard-bearer in 2016 will be Elizabeth Warren, who checks all the boxes Hillary! does — female, white, elderly, wealthy, leftist, preachy and schoolmarmish. But she has one advantage that Mrs. Clinton lacks, and which is of paramount importance to the low-information, short-attention-span voters who make up the Democrat base: nobody ever heard of her until last night.
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