Thomas Edsall, who writes on demographics and campaign strategy for the New York Times, said it’s possible Hillary Clinton could lose the general election in a matchup with Donald Trump and that there are signs it’s already happening.
“Still, as we near the close of the primary season, Hillary Clinton has somehow succeeded in turning the election into a close contest that she could conceivably lose,” Edsall wrote Wednesday. “She retains key advantages in areas where Trump is vulnerable, but she has also ceded ground to him on the visceral terrain of nativism and anti-immigrant fervor, of a yearning for a return to the days of America’s unquestioned global pre-eminence.”
Clinton and Trump are effectively tied in national support, according to the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls. Though Clinton is viewed as untrustworthy by a majority of voters, largely due to her reliance on a private email server while serving as secretary of state, Edsall said it is “attacks” from both Republicans and her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders that are responsible for her low popularity.
“The unrelenting assault from the right and the left on her integrity and competence, conducted both by Republicans and by her opponent for the Democratic nomination, appears to have taken a toll,” he wrote. “Clinton has been under attack from the right throughout her 25 years in the national arena. The Sanders critique from the left has served to deepen her negative ratings.”
Edsall said, however, that Clinton could “elevate” herself by focusing on “issues of judgment, temperament and experience,” where she “holds an advantage.”
“But so far this year,” he wrote, “no one who has faced Trump has been able to change the conversation.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the day Thomas Edsall’s article appeared. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
