This could get entertaining . . . Mark Halperin says that, faced with plunging poll numbers, Hillary's only hope of victory is to "win ugly."
Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Halperin explained that by "win ugly" he means drawing invidious comparisons with her opponents, such as emphasizing that Bernie Sanders is a socialist and Trump a billionaire developer. Should we prepare for the Hillary Red Scare? "I have here in my hand a list of 205 socialists in the Sanders campaign!"
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Mark Halperin, a lot of people are stunned. Not only around this table, but in the Democratic party as well. But I want to go back to those numbers before and the head-to-head matchups with Hillary Clinton. Ben Carson, a guy who's got me scratching my head and I'm a Republican, Ben Carson is -- is ahead of Hillary Clinton 51-46%. I know it's September, but September ain't August. September ain't July. We're after Labor Day and suddenly we're in regular season here. Jeb Bush, ahead of Hillary Clinton, 49-47%. Donald Trump tied with Hillary Clinton 48-48%. And you look at those top two lines, you dig into those numbers on the poll. The most remarkable thing is that Ben Carson and Jeb Bush have erased any advantage that Hillary Clinton has among women.
MARK HALPERIN: Here's where I think we are with Hillary Clinton, right? You look at all those numbers. If she's going to be the nominee, if she's going to be president, she's going to have to win ugly. And I think the question is, can she win ugly? Bill Clinton can win ugly. George W. Bush can win ugly. Can Hillary Clinton win this, even as her own campaign concedes now, this is going to be tough and hard?
JOE: Why do you say she has to win ugly now? What's happened?
HALPERIN: Well, I mean, look, she's threatened in Iowa and New Hampshire. She's still got very good favorability with Democrats, but with the general election electorate, she's in a lot of trouble. You know, Joe Biden likes to say, don't compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative. At this point her path to the nomination, her path to the White House, is not winning over a lot of new people, not selling herself anew, although she's going to do a lot of Ellen-like TV interviews to try to do that. It's saying to people, do you want me or do you want the socialist? Do you want me or do you want the billionaire developer? That is her path and that's ugly. Now a lot of politicians know how to win ugly, but she's not done it.
