Getting defined by her opponents. Not a winning strategy.
If Hillary is not your favorite candidate (and she's not mine) you've read and agreed with plenty of explications of her various flaws both as a candidate and as a politician.
If Hillary is your favorite candidate (and there are many of you) you've read and heard all this too, and you have your reasons for either not believing what detractors say, not caring about those things, or not liking any other candidate better.
Fair enough. That's how the process works. We all have opinions and priorities and we make our choices accordingly.
For me, I will be voting for the Democrat in the general election, even if it's a Democrat I didn't especially like or have a lot of confidence in. Maybe you disagree, but I think the harm caused by ANY of the republican candidates is likely to be severe enough to warrant my full support after primary season is over.
But I was listening to the news on my way home and I heard an extremely troubling report about a Quinnipiac poll that just came out and while Hillary maintains her national lead among democrats, the words that people associate with her should give us all pause -- and provide some insight about why the establishment might be scrambling to persuade Biden to get in the race. Have you seen this?
It was an open-ended question without any suggested answers.
They asked people
What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of Hillary Clinton.
178 people said Liar
123 people said Dishonest
93 people said Untrustworthy
82 people said Experience
59 people said Strong
56 people said Bill
47 people said woman
31 people said smart
21 people said crook
The next ten most commonly said words were Untruthful, Criminal, Deceitful, Democrat, Intelligent (15 people), Email, Politician, Benghazi, Corrupt and Crooked.
It's really hard to look at this and have any kind of reaction other than, Holy Hell! How is she letting them define her so completely? What kind of campaign is she running? No wonder people are begging Biden to run!
I don't hate Hillary. Like I said, she's got my vote in the general if she gets the nomination. But after seeing this, I am understanding that maybe she's a very smart, capable senator, maybe she's an effective head of a state department, but she is NOT a campaigner. She doesn't have the sales gene or whatever it takes to be a successful candidate on the national stage.
I don't really know what the solution is going to be. If Bernie (or Biden) pulls off an upset, and gets the nomination, I'm sure it won't be a cakewalk for him either. We all know how dirty the other side plays. But for all the people claiming how electable Hillary is... um, WHAT???
Is there anything people can do to help her? I'm a Bernie supporter, so most of my efforts are going to his campaign, but I would also be glad to do something to help the Hillary campaign just so she doesn't go to the general, if she wins the nomination, in such damaged condition. You guys who are truly Team Hillary, you need to Step. It. Up! (And by that I mean go out and volunteer for her - help her! Don't just argue about her online!)
I have anxiety disorder which I usually manage pretty well, but I am going to have to do a lot of exercise and a lot of meditation and I don't even really know what to do to feel 'things will be okay' about this.
I did look at the words associated with Bush and Trump to see if they were also as negative. Bush's words aren't stellar, but they aren't as bad as Hillary's words. 45 people said Weak. 12 said Untrustworthy. 9 said Idiot.
Trump's words are pretty dramatically bad, which matches his campaign so far: Arrogant (58), Blowhard (38), Idiot (35), Businessman (34), Clown (34), Honest (30), Ego (29), Money (29), Outspoken (28), Crazy (26), Rich (26), Showman (23). You can look at the pdf in the link above to see all the words that got 5 or more responses for each candidate.
But seriously. Our establishment candidate needs to do better than this.
(Sorry I can't hang around. I've got to go exercise before I go home for the evening. But I would not like this to be seen as an anti-Hillary diary. I'm not anti-Hillary. But I am now alarmed about public perception of her. I didn't think it was this bad.)