The isolated, some say “tone deaf,” world inside the Hillary Clinton campaign is now worried by its inability to open up a wide lead on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the polls.
Her team thought taking on a billionaire businessman/reality TV star with zero political experience and a penchant for making controversial statements should have been a slam dunk, but the Democratic nominee is now up just 2.1 percent, based on the latest RealClearPolitics average.
A Washington Post piece published late on Friday night titled, “Democrats wonder and worry: Why isn’t Clinton far ahead of Trump?” says it’s the hottest question in 'Hillaryland' as election day creeps closer.
The Beltway paper, now owned by Amazon founder and Trump critic Jeff Bezos, blamed her inability to relate to voters the way her main opponent does as one of the issues.
It doesn’t help that her unpopularity rating is now on par with Trump’s, making them the “two most unpopular presidential candidates in polling dating back more than 30 years,” as reported by ABC News.
Her attacks on the alt-right candidate and her campaign’s anti-Russian rhetoric don’t appear to be working, prompting Democratic party elders to express doubts.
“Generally, I’m concerned, frankly,” former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle told the Post. “It still looks positive, and I think if you look at the swing states and where she is right now, she’s got a lead. But it’s certainly not in the bag. We have two months to go, and I think it’s going to be a competitive race all the way through. I would say she’s got at least a 60 percent chance of winning.”
Insiders believe Clinton needs to counter Trump’s “man of the people” popularity with some genuine opening up that doesn’t feel 'hot sauce in my purse' false.
The Washington Post reports that the plan is to shift focus to connect with voters and share her plans for the country, moving from attacks on her opponent or his "deplorable" supporters to a more positive message, making her speeches “more about her than him,” according to communications director Jennifer Palmieri.
Clinton has made some headway in that department with the 16 million followers of the Humans of New York blog, where she discussed sexism and her reputation as being aloof.
“I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional. And neither do my friends. And neither does my family. But if that sometimes is the perception I create, then I can’t blame people for thinking that,” she said.
However, the “more about her than him” strategy apparently didn’t extend to Clinton’s first press conference in 278 days on Thursday, or a Friday follow-up, when she largely focused on attacking Trump.
Given the ongoing scandal over her handling of classified documents, her decision to avoid the limelight was understandable in theory, but hiding away hasn’t done the former secretary of state any favors in the polls.
Dogging legal issues have actually increased her fundraising efforts, however, as she headlined 37 top-dollar events in August, raising $143 million.
While this has bolstered the campaign’s war chest to finance pro-Clinton and anti-Trump ads, it has taken away time the Democratic candidate could have spent to “connect with voters and share her plans for the country.”
Despite Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton, his primary supporters can’t help but feel frustrated.
After all, their candidate packed the house with thousands of supporters every night, broke Obama’s record in small donations, and had a bigger lead in the polls on Trump going into the convention.
While Clinton appeared to shift to the left during the primaries as part of the DNC’s sabotage of the Sanders campaign, her subsequent return to the center courting swing and anti-Trump Republican voters may have demotivated the progressive base of her party.
Sanders supporters still pine for the presidential face-off between their candidate and Trump.
The Clinton camp knows something has to change, as the gap between Clinton and Trump has fallen from nine points in August to only three this week.
Despite a lack of enthusiasm for Clinton, Bernie backers don’t appear to be flocking to Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson, however, as they remain with 3.3 and 9 percent support respectively.