Hillary Clinton flips the script
In South Carolina, she's the candidate she always wanted to be. And Bernie Sanders is the one with the rocky path forward.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/hillary-clinton-south-carolina-favorables-219894#ixzz41NqYl2Qm
Excerpts:
HARLESTON, South Carolina — In South Carolina, Hillary Clinton is finally the candidate she always wanted to be.
Gone are questions about her authenticity. Here, black voters say Clinton’s history as a civil rights stalwart -- she first visited the state as a college grad investigating the problem of youths incarcerated in adult jails for the Children’s Defense Fund -- trumps any trust issues that dog her elsewhere.
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The script has been flipped, for the first time, in her favor.
Her stories about her own mother’s abused and abandoned childhood resonate deeply with African-American women -- and there are about 100,000 more black women than men of voting age in the state. And to them, it is Bernie Sanders who is viewed as an unknown quantity, whose big ideas of free college and healthcare are greeted with skepticism.
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Here, older African-American voters who have struggled with racism and poverty are pragmatic, and believe in the incremental change Clinton espouses. “They don’t have the luxury of an Iowa college student” to vote for ideals, Hodges added.
Many voters say they would have been happy to support her eight years ago if it wasn’t for the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy. Clinton’s support for Obama since then has only increased their desire to help her this time.
“The feeling among voters here is they have a job to do and that’s to nominate Hillary,” said Boyd Brown, a DNC executive committee member and super-delegate who is supporting Clinton after originally backing Martin O’Malley. “They see it as a duty. They’ve got a proven candidate and she might not be the greatest candidate in the world, or the most enthusiastic candidate, but you know what? She’d be a good president and they realize that.”
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But the calendar doesn’t get easier for Sanders on Super Tuesday, which is March 1. A recent Monmouth University poll has Clinton up by 34 points in Texas; in Georgia, polls have her leading between 28 and 52 points; Clinton is up by double digits in Virginia and leading in Florida by 26 points. Devine said they have opportunities to post big wins in Kansas, Nebraska and Maine, caucus states which vote in mid-March.
By the time the race gets to the Michigan primary on March 8, Democratic operatives expect it to act as Clinton’s final firewall -- or Sanders’ last stand -- depending on the results of Super Tuesday.
Full article here:http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/hillary-clinton-south-carolina-favorables-219894
A great read without the double standard media thresholds that often impact her campaign.
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