WaPo:
Donald Trump is gaining ground on Hillary Clinton in the polls. Or perhaps more aptly, Hillary Clinton is losing ground.
While Trump’s image hasn’t improved appreciably for months — and he remains the most unpopular presidential nominee in modern history — Clinton continues to see her own image decline. It’s now at its worst point ever and, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll of registered voters, basically as bad as Trump’s.
And the reason is clear: The email story is absolutely killing her — and ruining what might otherwise be a coronation.
A new CNN/ORC poll demonstrates it pretty clearly. While polls at the start of the 2016 race showed Americans were basically split about whether her use of a private email server gave them pause about voting for her, it’s now clear that it’s a significant hurdle for a strong majority of Americans in voting for Clinton.
The poll shows fully 62 percent of registered voters agreed with the statement that her use of the server is “an important indicator of her character and ability to serve as president.” That number has risen steadily this year, from 46 percent in March 2015, to 55 percent in October, to 58 percent in June 2016, and now to 62 percent today.
Just 36 percent say the email server is “not relevant to her character or her ability to serve as president.” That’s down from 52 percent at the start of the campaign 18 months ago.
Behold the steady decline:
The difference between now and before? While before people generally agreed that the server was a bad idea but were split along partisan lines about whether it was actually relevant, the issue seems to have moved steadily from being a nuisance for Clinton to a genuine — and growing — liability.
In March 2015, a CBS News poll showed 62 percent thought the server was “inappropriate.” An August 2015 CNN poll showed 56 percent thought she did something wrong.
But polls last year also suggested it was just another issue for partisans. An October NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 47 percent of voters said it was an important factor in their vote, while 44 percent said it was not. The same CBS poll in March 2015 showed just 29 percent said it diminished their view of her — compared to 65 percent who said it had no effect.
