The Hill summarizes the problems faced by the Clinton campaign:
Tightening race rattles Clinton World’s nerves
Allies of Hillary Clinton are growing nervous as the Democratic presidential race with Bernie Sanders tightens ahead of contests in Nevada and South Carolina.
A new CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday found Clinton with a 1-point lead in Nevada, which hosts its caucuses on Saturday. That’s a huge change from the 23-point lead Clinton enjoyed in a late December poll by Gravis.
In South Carolina, which hosts its primary election on Feb. 27, Clinton has a more comfortable 18-point lead according to a CNN/ORC poll. But even that edge has narrowed since Sanders crushed her in New Hampshire’s primary last week.
As recently as mid-January, a poll from NBC, The Wall Street Journal and Marist found Clinton with a 33-point lead in South Carolina.
“I don’t get it. I don’t think anyone expected this race to look like this,” said one former Clinton aide who maintains ties with the campaign. “A big loss in New Hampshire, basically a tie going into Nevada. You have to ask yourself, ‘What’s next?’ ”
Team Clinton maintains confidence that its lead in South Carolina will hold, but the potential loss in Nevada has put people on edge about a “domino effect” in which states could fall one by one to Sanders as he gains momentum…
Quinnipiac, NBC, and Fox all have bad news for Clinton.
Quinnipiac, which has also shown the national race to be near tied in their last two polls, shows Sanders doing better than Clinton in head to head matchups against Republicans:
- Sanders over Trump 48 – 42 percent;
- Sanders tops Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas 49 – 39 percent;
- Sanders leads Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida 47 – 41 percent;
- Sanders beats Bush 49 – 39 percent;
- Sanders edges Kasich 45 – 41 percent.
- Clinton with 44 percent to Trump’s 43 percent;
- Cruz with 46 percent to Clinton’s 43 percent;
- Rubio topping Clinton 48 – 41 percent;
- Bush at 44 percent to Clinton’s 43 percent;
- Kasich beating Clinton 47 – 39 percent.
The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll still has Clinton leading in the national polls but her lead has fallen from twenty-five points a month ago to eleven points in the latest poll.
While possibly an outlier, Fox now has Sanders leading Clinton nationally:
Bernie Sanders now tops Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination.
The latest Fox News national poll finds 47 percent of Democratic primary voters now back the Vermont senator, up from 37 percent in January. Clinton gets 44 percent, down from 49 percent a month ago.
CLICK TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
This is the first time Sanders has been ahead of Clinton, who not long ago was regularly described as the “presumptive Democratic nominee.”
Clinton led Sanders in the Fox poll by as many as 46 points last summer, and had a 22-point lead as recently as two months ago.
Sanders also does better against Trump than Clinton does:
Sanders outperforms Clinton in a hypothetical matchup against Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He leads Trump by 53-38 percent. Clinton has a narrower five-point edge over Trump: 47-42 percent.
It appears that Clinton’s smear campaign is not working, and might be backfiring against her.
