A former pollster for the Clintons has come out with a fairly controversial claim which is sure to turn some heads given what the current polls tell us about the inevitability of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for the White House.
Borrowing a phrase from Barack Obama, Doug Schoen reported in a recent radio interview of his former boss that she lacks that ‘new car smell’ which Obama brought to the fray in his 2008 bid to be the first black president.
Schoen points to a Quinnipiac poll from last week that showed Mitt Romney as the only candidate leading Hillary, but with Jeb Bush not far behind. “We’re in a real barn burner. The race hasn’t even begun, and it’s tied ostensibly between Hillary and Mitt Romney.”
He then pointed to Hillary’s chief weakness in having served in Obama’s cabinet and that her association with him could drag her down just as it did so many incumbent Democrat Senators,
“The real question is how does she separate herself from Obama, yet not get so far away from him that … she doesn’t alienate his base constituents?”
On whether a bid by Mitt would be good for the GOP, Schoen explained, “I think much of what Mitt said in the last campaign has been validated. And I think he’s been much better on the stump than he was four years ago.”
Should Elizabeth Warren decide ultimately to take a stab at the race, Schoen says it could hurt Hillary, “I think she’s a strong candidate, if she runs. But there’s a big if. The Democratic political base wants (her) kind of populism.”
