Trouble for Clinton

Hilliary has an historic tightrope to walk if she hopes to get the democratic presidential nomination and ultimately become president of the United States. She has one of the highest, if not the highest "will not vote, ever" ratings in history. Polls show ranges of 44-48% of the voting population of the United States that would not vote for Hilliary Clinton under any circumstance. So she has a very thin margin for error in her campaign which I think has been the basis of her undoing. Net/net - she cannot afford to make many people mad.

If the polling data is close to accurate, and it has been consistent over the past 12-18 months, Hilliary wipes 44-48% of prospective voters off the table as soon as she becomes the democratic nominee. So she is working with only 52-56% of the electorate with which to carve out a presidential victory. Realizing these numbers, she has been working very hard to work every side of an issue and take as many positions as possible on most every issue. It is my opinion that this has hurt her badly.

Now, let's be fair, any candidate for president has some percentage of voters who would not vote for them under any circumstance, so no candidate is ever addressing the full population in trying to win votes. However, Hilliary has such a large anti-Hilliary base that she has very little wiggle room and in her effort to make no mistakes, she has made the largest one of the campaign...waging the campaign that does not offend, that is malleable, and can be construed to meet most any constituent position. This has been a huge strategic error, and one that came to head in the "driver's licences for illegals" issue raised in one of the many pre-primary season debates. I have no idea what Hilliary really thinks about this issue. I have no idea what she thinks about many issues. I know appearance she want to project, but I don't know what she really thinks, what she believes, what she is about...other than she wants to be president as badly as anyone has ever wanted that job.

However, wanting to be president is not a qualification for being president. Hilliary may still win the prize she so zealously covets, but I think she would have a better chance of winning genuine support and actually winning over some of the "under no circumstance" crowd...if she let folks know who she is, what she believes, and why. She needs to make it real however, and not a poll-tested position. What does she really thing about the war on terror, taxes, illegal immigration? If she has solid positions and good ideas, she may surprise a lot of folks and herself with the reaction. However, if she keeps her current course and speed, banking on polls to establish her positions and working every angle she may have more trouble ahead. If she cannot let the voters know what she really thinks versus what she wants us to think she thinks, she either must not trust herself or must be hiding something. Neither of these conclusions is one that is helpful if one wants to be president.