Maybe good news for Bernie shouldn’t be such big news as he has leads in Iowa and New Hampshire and has been gaining nationally. However, the conventional wisdom is still that Hillary Clinton is the big prohibitive favorite and that Sanders is going to have a hard time garnering support beyond liberal primary voters. The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has shown a dramatic rise for the Vermont Senator as Clinton’s email scandal continues to add to voters’ feelings that the Democratic frontrunner isn’t trustworthy. From NBC News:
In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton is the first choice of 42 percent of primary voters, Sanders is in second at 35 percent and Joe Biden third at 17 percent. No other Democrat gets more than 1 percent.
When Biden – who is still mulling a campaign – is removed from the field, Clinton’s lead over Sanders grows to 15 points, 53 percent to 38 percent, which suggests that Biden’s entry would hurt Clinton more than Sanders.
Back in July, Clinton held a 34-point lead over Sanders, 59 percent to 25 percent. And in June, it was 60 points, 75 percent to 15 percent.
Clinton complains about the “drip, drip, drip” of her email scandal:
As Reuters reports, Clinton noted the constant drip of revelations about her email correspondences and use of a private server as Secretary of State. Clinton has tried different tactics to put the controversy behind her, but new issues continue to trouble her campaign.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Sunday the politically damaging “drip, drip, drip” of revelations about her use of a private email server is out of her control and she is unsure when the controversy might end.
Clinton, who has seen her lead shrivel in the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, said she has tried to be as open as possible and take responsibility for the email flap.
“It is like a drip, drip, drip. That’s why I said there is only so much I can control,” Clinton told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
New emails have been discovered, contrary to Clinton’s previous statements that all pertinent emails have been turned over. The fact that Clinton’s statements about her emails have proven to be untrue obviously do not help a candidate who a majority of voters view as untrustworthy. The New York Times on the fact that Clinton can’t explain why some “missing” emails have been found:
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that she could not fully explain the discovery of a string of work emails sent from her personal account more than two months earlier than when she has said she first began using that address as secretary of state. But she said she hoped voters would look past what she called the “drip, drip, drip” of the furor over her emails.
“There was a transition period. You know, I wasn’t that focused on my email,” Mrs. Clinton said on “Meet the Press,” when asked about emails sent from her personal account in her first two months after taking office in January 2009. Mrs. Clinton had previously said she did not begin using a clintonemail.com address for State Department business until that March.
The State Department said on Friday that Mrs. Clinton had exchanged emails in late January and February 2009 with Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the commander of the United States Central Command.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on September 14th found that 44% of voters cared about the email scandal; that 54% of voters felt Clinton has been trying to cover up facts; 56% stated she was not trustworthy, with only 32% feeling that they could trust the Democratic frontrunner. If the “drip, drip, drip” of revelations continue, we will likely see Bernie Sanders continue climbing in the polls, a positive development for those fighting for marijuana legalization and greater Drug War reform.
(Featured photo credit: Photo: AP (left), Getty Images)
