For politicians, there’s a complicated relationship between bad news and the polls. It works like this: Some sort of scandalous or negative story breaks in the media. The candidate tries to deal with it. In a day or two, a pollster asks the public about it, and there is little or no change in the candidate’s numbers. News accounts then report the scandalous or negative story has had no effect on the candidate.
The problem is, the process takes a while. It takes time for stories to sink in with the public all across a very big country. And when the stories do finally sink in, the polls begin to show it.
Two new surveys out Tuesday have some very bad news for Clinton on two questions that are important to voters. The first: Does the phrase “honest and trustworthy” apply to Hillary Clinton? The second: Does she care about people like you?
The results of a new CNN poll are simply terrible for Clinton. Just 42 percent said “honest and trustworthy” applies to Clinton, while a whopping 57 percent said it does not apply. Just 47 percent said Clinton cares about people like them, while 52 percent said she does not.
In another new poll, from ABC, the news is just as bad for Clinton on the “honest and trustworthy” front. Just 41 percent of respondents said it applies to her, while 52 percent said it does not. ABC worded the “cares about you” question slightly differently — it asked whether Clinton “understands the problems of people like you” — and Clinton did a bit better, with 49 percent saying she understands their problems and 46 percent saying she does not.
The bottom line, though, is that all the numbers in those two categories look pretty bad. And there seems little doubt Clinton’s recent problems — her secret email system, the finances of the Clinton Foundation, and her refusal to say much about either — are playing into the “honest and trustworthy” calculation that voters make.
Indeed, ABC asked whether voters approved or disapproved of Clinton’s handling of those two issues. Fifty-five percent disapprove of her handling of the email issue (31 percent approve), and 50 percent disapprove of her handling of the foundation issue (33 percent approve). (Just for good measure, 50 percent disapprove of her handling of Benghazi, while 33 percent approve.)
As far as the “cares about people like you” question is concerned — that may be even more damaging for Clinton, because it is a bread-and-butter measure for Democrats. Whatever a Democratic candidate’s other problems, he or she should far outdistance Republicans on the caring question. So far, Clinton is still ahead of any GOP rival on that question, but there is no doubt that, from a Democratic perspective, her numbers are going the wrong way.
Finally, Clinton’s overall approval rating — “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion?” — is sinking fast. In the CNN poll, she has gone from 59 percent favorable — 38 percent unfavorable last November to 53 percent favorable — 44 unfavorable in March to 46 percent favorable — 50 percent unfavorable now. The corresponding ABC numbers are very similar: 45 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable.
The bottom line is that there has been a lot of bad news about Hillary Clinton, and the public has now had some time to digest it. And that is finally showing up in the public’s opinion of her.
