USC logo

Hillary Clinton struggles to endear herself to voters

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

The San Jose Mercury News quoted Bedrosian Faculty Affilitate Sherry Bebitch Jeffe in an article titled “Hillary Clinton struggles to endear herself to voters” on the Presidential candidate’s vulnerabilities.

Clinton’s favorability rating with voters has ebbed and flowed through the years, peaking at nearly 70 percent when she was U.S. secretary of state. But it has plunged during her latest run for the presidency. Some of the damage is the product of a quarter-century of Republican attacks dating back to Whitewater and Travelgate, but many of her troubles have been self-inflicted, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior political scholar at the University of Southern California.

Clinton’s decision to take six-figure speaking fees from Wall Street firms after leaving the State Department in 2012 — and refuse to release the transcripts of those speeches — enabled Sanders to brand her to a new generation of voters as a corporate shill. And her refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of her email server scandal reinforced Republican talking points that she cannot be trusted.

“She was dismissive about it, and I don’t think people appreciated that,” Bebitch Jeffe said.

For the full article, click here.

Bedrosian Center