Democrats March Toward Cliff: Hillary's negative ratings continue to soar. People don't like her.

[imagine2015]

Democrats March Toward Cliff
19 April 2016
By Robert Parry, Consortium News | Op-Ed

As Democratic-insider "super-delegates" give Hillary Clinton a seemingly insurmountable lead for the presidential nomination, the former Secretary of State's negative ratings continue to soar to stunning levels, hitting a net 24-point unfavorable in the new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll.

It is hard to imagine someone who is viewed unfavorably by a clear majority of voters (56 percent) and with a net-negative of 24 points winning the White House, except that most voters also don't like the top Republican choices either. Donald Trump sports a 41-point net-negative and Sen. Ted Cruz is at minus-23 points. (By contrast, of the two trailing candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders gets a net-positive 9 points and Gov. John Kasich a net-positive 12 points.)

While Clinton's dismal approval ratings haven't seemed to have shaken the Democratic establishment, which continues to line up behind her long-anticipated coronation, some outside analysts see the party leaders blindly marching toward a cliff. But a major difference between Trump and Clinton in the latest poll is that Trump's numbers haven't moved much while Clinton's net-negative has almost doubled in the last month. In other words, the more Americans get to see of Clinton the more they don't want her.

So, if Clinton's eventual nomination is inevitable, the Democrats will be putting up a candidate who is broadly disliked by the American people. That means a Clinton candidacy will require massive spending on negative ads to make the Republican candidate so frightening in the eyes of most Americans that they will vote for Clinton out of fear, not hope.

If neither Clinton nor Sanders could clinch the nomination on the first ballot, that could open the process to allow the party to select an alternative who has not been in the race, someone such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, an economic populist who is beloved by Sanders's backers and a woman who might be acceptable to Clinton supporters wanting the first female President.

The full article is at:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35697-democrats-march-toward-cliff

[NewImproved Deal]

1. Exactly.

Hillary Clinton is America's Imelda Marcos...

[ChisolmTrailDem]

2. Hillary supporters don't care about their leader's flaws. nt

[uponit7771]

6. I care, she has flaws BUT.. BUT... I think she's the ONLY dem candidate who's apologized for bad...

... moves and votes and shown (just not words) that she's going to be more progressive.

Sanders on the other hand is defending some of his stupid votes to the end....

He has yet to drop a stone from his hand

[ChisolmTrailDem]

7. She'll be "more progressive' right up until the moment she no longer has to be. nt

[uponit7771]

3. Well "certain" people don't like her, she's the symbol of the establishment ceding power to

... the "others"

[Jitter65]

4. yeah, that's why she has more of the popular vote than Bernie and the GOP combined. nt

[bkkyosemite]

5. That's an understatement

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. She hasn't met the people that really hate her yet.

This has been little-league play so far.

But her supporters here think she can go it alone...........

[LexVegas]

9. White men don't like her. There...fixed that part. nt

[pdsimdars]

10. That's just her "likeability" . . . .. .don't forget her TRUST

That ain't no picnic either (she's the least trustworthy)

[imagine2015]

12. Hillary is ahead of Trump in voters thinking she is dishonest. That's not easy to do.

[farleftlib]

11. I wish it was only a drop off a cliff we were facing

Methinks it's going to be a lot worse than that no matter what. I'm convinced
TPTB are never going to allow Bernie to win the WH and they're doing a
good job so far. There have been massive problems with Sanders voters
in every close state so far.