Clinton’s Lead Vanishes as She Disappears

The presidential campaign kicks into full gear Tuesday, and far from the cakewalk the Clinton campaign expected, recent polls suggest Hillary Clinton will have to fight tooth and nail in the coming weeks to defeat Trump.

The comfortable double-digit lead Clinton had over Trump only a few weeks ago has evaporated into thin air — like an email on her private server.

“Unlike any other presidential nominee in history, [Clinton] is not allowing journalists to accompany her on the campaign plane.”

The latest Rasmussen Reports “White House Watch” tracking poll shows Trump with 40 percent support compared to Clinton’s 39 percent. Last week, the same poll showed Clinton leading Trump 42 percent to 38 percent.

The RealClearPolitics average puts Clinton at 46.6 percent to Trump’s 42 percent. Trump is biting at Clinton’a heels in crucial battleground states as well.

In Florida, the RCP average has Clinton with 44.3 to Trump’s 41.6, while two other polls released in the past week show Trump leading Clinton by 1 to 2 points in the Sunshine State. In Ohio, Clinton leads Trump 44.8 percent to 41 percent, according the RCP average, while in Iowa she leads by only 1.5 points, 42 to 40.5.

[lz_table title=”RealClearPolitics Poll Averages Trump v. Clinton” source=”RealClearPolitics”]Nationwide
Clinton,46.6%
Trump,42%
|Florida
Clinton,44.3%
Trump,41.6%
|Ohio
Clinton,44.8%
Trump,41%
|Iowa
Clinton,42%
Trump,40.5%
|Nevada
Clinton,43%
Trump,41%
|North Carolina
Clinton,44.8%
Trump,44.3%
[/lz_table]

Clinton’s dramatic slide in the polls is hardly surprising. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday, Clinton has reached a new low in her approval rates. Fifty-six percent of Americans said they had an unfavorable opinion of the candidate.

Moreover, she has seen a drop in favorables among even among friendly demographics. “Among women, her favorables dropped from 54 percent to 45 percent; with Hispanics, 71 to 55 percent; and among liberals, her ratings fell from 76 to 63 percent,” CBS reported.

The WikiLeaks well has yet to dry up, and the continuous trickle of scandals it produces has slowly eroded Clinton’s favorability and her lead. New revelations about the relationship with the Clinton Foundation and the State Department under Clinton’s tenure suggest that Clinton may indeed be the most unethical, immoral, and corrupt candidate to run for president in the history of the country.

Furthermore, Trump continues to have a clear edge over Clinton on matters which matter the most to Americans. The results of the Florida Atlantic University poll released this week, which showed Trump leading Clinton in Florida by 2 percent, are revealing.

“The top issue for voters was dissatisfaction with government at 29 percent, followed by jobs at 18 percent; immigration at 13 percent; and ISIS at 12 percent,” the poll summary reads. “Wanting an outsider was mentioned by 12 percent of respondents.”

[lz_graphiq id=hA9xRZ4UaCF]

But perhaps the main reason Clinton has seen her cushy lead disappear entirely is because she herself has seemed to disappear entirely. It has now been roughly 270 days since Clinton has given a press conference. Trump has given nearly 20 so far in 2016 alone.

Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine faced a grilling Thursday on “CBS This Morning” regarding Clinton’s refusal to face the press. One host noted that after his appearance with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump “immediately opened up the floor to reporters for questions. When will we see Hillary open up the floor and take questions from reporters at any event?”

Kaine provided an unconvincing defense of Clinton. “You see Hillary take questions from reporters every day. She does — she talks to the press everywhere she goes,” Kaine insisted.

But there is a marked difference between a politician holding a formal press conference in which he faces reporters head-on and a politician merely tolerating the presence of reporters at campaign stops, reporters to whom he has no obligation to respond.

That Clinton — or at the very least her campaign — is afraid of journalists is at this point in the election demonstrable fact. Indeed, as Norah O’Donnell noted Thursday morning while interviewing Kaine, “unlike any other presidential nominee in history, [Clinton] is not allowing journalists to accompany her on the campaign plane.”

Unfortunately for Clinton’s campaign prospects, she also seems to be ignoring voters as well as journalists. Trump has not only displayed a willingness to engage with the press in the past few weeks, but he has also displayed a willingness to engage with voters — and even foreign leaders who once insinuated he was a fascist.

[lz_related_box id=”198364″]

In the last several weeks Donald Trump has made a serious and well-received visit to flood-stricken Louisiana. Clinton was nowhere to be found, insisting she’d visit “when the time is right” — presumably after the election or after the majority of the cleanup has finished.

Trump has conducted a serious, substantive, and cordial meeting with a foreign leader whom he previously had reasons to be antagonistic toward. Clinton attempted to paint the meeting as an opportunistic photo-op, but the truth is that Trump was responding Nieto’s invitation — an invitation he extended also to Clinton, and an invitation she has yet to accept.

Trump has also given several major policy addresses in public forums. Clinton, on the other hand, has stuck mainly to a slow schedule of elite, closed-door fundraisers, and has given only two speeches — both hyperbolic attacks on Trump and his supporters, devoid entirely of intelligence or honesty.