Michael Barone‘s latest column for the Washington Examiner delves into the latest polling data for Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
“Despite everything,” the often interesting analyst Jamelle Bouie wrote in Slate — “everything” includes “the email controversy, foreign donors and the Clinton Foundation” — “Hillary is in good shape.” Good enough to leave her party “still positioned for victory.”
Bouie is writing in response to the ABC/Washington Post and CNN/ORC polls released last week which showed Hillary Clinton’s favorable/unfavorable numbers plunging. ABC/WaPo put them at 45-49 percent negative, the lowest since April 2008. CNN/ORC put them at an almost identical 46-50 percent negative, the lowest since March 2003.
The most significant thing about these results is that Clinton evokes favorable feelings from less than 50 percent of respondents. Bouie is right to say that it is unrealistic to expect Clinton to be as favorably regarded as she was when she held the relatively unpolitical office of secretary of State. But it’s a stretch to say that a candidate with 100 percent substantive recognition but less than 50 percent favorables is “positioned for victory.” Such a candidate could win, especially if her opponent has exploitable flaws. But there is a nontrivial possibility she will lose.
The internals — the responses to subsidiary questions — point in that direction as well. ABC/WaPo says that only 33 percent approve of her relationship with the Clinton Foundation, only 31 percent approve of her private email system and only 33 percent approve of her conduct on Benghazi — and that between 48 and 55 percent believe these are legitimate issues.
It’s not hard to imagine how Republican candidates can frame messages on these issues. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine how they could fail to do so. And it’s not likely that these issues will go away. A federal court has ordered the State Department to release batches of Clinton’s emails every month through next January.
These issues — Jamelle Bouie’s “everything” — have taken a toll on Hillary Clinton’s reputation. CNN/ORC tells us that only 49 percent say she inspires confidence and 50 percent say she doesn’t; only 42 percent say she is honest and trustworthy and 57 percent say she isn’t.
