During a discussion on her MSNBC show on Thursday, host Andrea Mitchell and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd were puzzled by a new poll showing bad numbers for Hillary Clinton. Mitchell immediately tried to downplay the results: “I mean, it's one poll, it's a Quinnipiac poll....But it does show her behind in the swing states, with Virginia, I guess, as within the margin of error....It's pretty early.”
Todd replied: “Well, no, it's like her standing in national polls looks fairly strong. These swing states, Virginia, usually goes where the national polls are. So something is amiss here. Either the state polls are an outlier or the state polls have found something first, before the national polls, which is also possible.”
He even touted the Democratic front-runner’s attempt to discredit the findings: “So the Clinton campaign very quietly is pushing back, saying, ‘Well, maybe this was a bad Democratic sample.’ We'll see. Let’s see other polls to find out.”
Mitchell offered an excuse: “It could be that the attention is all on the Republican race.” Todd grasped for another reason: “I think there's a lot to that. It could be maybe the Iran deal’s not playing well. I mean, there's a lot of ifs here that could be influencing it...”
Clinton’s series of scandals were never mentioned as a possible cause.
Instead, Todd reiterated the campaign’s “bad sample” theory: “...one out of every 20 polls, no matter how well they're conducted, sometimes just get bad numbers.”
Later in the exchange, Todd did acknowledge underlying problems for Clinton’s candidacy:
You know, these polls came right at a time when you're looking at her – small donor base seemed mediocre. The crowds are – Bernie Sanders is the one drawing the crowd’s, she's not the one drawing crowds. So, you know, all of a sudden you have an anecdote here, you have an anecdote there, you have an anecdote there. It’s fitting a pattern where Hillary Clinton doesn't wear well over time when she’s been a candidate or been at the focal point.
So that’s why these numbers, you sat there and said, “Well, maybe they're outliers, but wait a minute, we have a data point here that hasn't been great, a data point here that hasn't been great, and now suddenly this adds to it. Is there something else?
Look, everybody’s watched this campaign and we all come to the same conclusion. There's something just not quite right. You know, is it enthusiasm? I don't know. Is it her? I don't know. There's just something that doesn't seem to be big, bold, and boom.
A worried Mitchell desperately tried to protect the Democrat: “I mean, she's filling in the blanks. She's going to give a speech in New York tomorrow. She’s going to talk about capital gains, she’s going to talk about long-term investment, and try to, you know, come up with an economic policy.”
So far, CBS and NBC have ignored Clinton’s poor polling.
