2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumEven supporters agree: Clinton has weaknesses as a candidate. What can she do?
Hillary Clintons declining personal image, ongoing battle to break free of the challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders and struggle to adapt to an anti-establishment mood among voters this year have become caution signs for her campaign and the focus of new efforts to fortify her position as she prepares for a bruising general election.
More than a dozen Clinton allies identified weaknesses in her candidacy that may erode her prospects of defeating Donald Trump, including poor showings with young women, untrustworthiness, unlikability and a lackluster style on the stump. Supporters also worry that she is a conventional candidate in an unconventional election in which voters clearly favor renegades.
I bring it down to one thing and one thing only, and that is likability, said Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster who has conducted a series of focus groups for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
To counter these challenges, Clinton is relying primarily on the prospect that her likely Republican opponents weaknesses are even greater. But advisers also are working to soften her stiff public image by highlighting her compassion and to combat perceptions about trustworthiness and authenticity by playing up her problem-solving abilities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/even-supporters-agree-clinton-has-weaknesses-as-a-candidate-what-can-she-do/2016/05/15/132f4d7e-1874-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html
grasswire
(50,130 posts)CorporatistNation
(2,546 posts)Time for the most trusted and competent candidate to be front and center FOR the people and put the Corporatists on the back bench!
Tarc
(10,538 posts)Why hold a primary at all?
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Most qualified and strongest candidate, Hillary.
Arkansas Granny
(31,728 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)The more I see Sanders campaign, the more I think he's a terrible campaigner. A one-note charlie. Everything comes back to his one core issue, and every speech is the same. Trump would eat him alive, I think.
MFM008
(19,960 posts)Would be U G L Y.
jamese777
(546 posts)Hillary Clinton is just fine with me.
Bernie Sanders is just fine with me.
There's a month left of primary voting to go.
Primaries' total popular vote as of May 15
Hillary Clinton: 12,728,415
Donald Trump: 11,025,505
Bernie Sanders: 9,627,509
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)Those votes are trotted out but they aren't real.
For example, Bernie beat Hillary in Washington by 40% points (70.6 percent to 29.2 percent).
Do you know how many VOTES they gave him for that? ZERO.
Many of his states were like that.
So, you are posting MISLEADING numbers. But what else does Hillary have but deception?
jamese777
(546 posts)has no weaknesses????
tularetom
(23,664 posts)JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Ahem...
morningfog
(18,115 posts)pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)Hart said being seen as likable is about the lowest bar for a candidate, and yet Clinton has lower likability numbers today than she did when the campaign began.
It is cold comfort that Trumps are worse, several Democrats said.
Among other potential problems identified by supporters: Clintons unpopularity with white men, questions about whether her family philanthropic foundation helped donors and friends, and lingering clouds from her tenure at the State Department, including her private email system, the Benghazi attacks in which four Americans were killed and her support for military intervention in Libya.
What struck me most about this piece is that these are all things Sanders supporters have said and yet in this piece they are coming from Hillary supporters. But the Hillary supporters here at DU have denied all of them.
NanceGreggs
(27,835 posts)Hillary supporters agree that their candidate has her flaws, her weaknesses, has made mistakes in the past and will no doubt make mistakes in future.
Contrast that with BS supporters who think their candidate is a flawless saint, totally incapable of saying or doing anything wrong.
That's probably why HRC is the front-runner - thanks to the reality-based community that doesn't believe that sainthood can be conferred on any politician just because his fans want it to be so.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)The corporate media anointed H. Clinton as the nominee four years ago.