As Hillary and Bernie launch this evening's "critical", according to CNN, debate in Brooklyn, the tide has shifted somewhat for both candidates and especially for Hillary the news is not good. According to newly released favorability ratings from Gallup, Hillary's image is at an all time low.
Back in November, when Bernie Sanders was still quite an unknown to most mainstream voters, Hillary's favorable ratings among Democrats was +63. Today, that net favorable is just +36 (66% giving her favorable rating, and 30% gave her an unfavorable rating). Conversely, Bernie Sanders has a net favorable rating of 52, down slightly from recent April highs, but up from his November rating of just 42.
And in even worse news for Hillary, the latest Fox News poll shows Clinton's national lead imploding and after having a comfortable 13 point, 55 to 42 lead in March, she is effectively tied with the socialist, as her lead just one month later tumbles to only 2 points, a 48%-46% split, which falls within the margin of error.
Hillary currently leads in the race to 2,383 delegates by a count of 1,307 to 1,087 according to the NYT, but she is reeling from losing to Sanders in eight of the last nine primaries, and is growing irritated with Bernie's ability to keep the race interesting. The Brooklyn debate comes just days ahead of the April 19th New York primary, which contains 291 democratic delegates.
One thing that Hillary does have going for her, at the moment at least, is that she holds a 17 point lead amongst New York's Democratic voters in New York. New Yorker's are seemingly forgetting that Hillary has made millions by giving speeches to Wall Street banks; "New York union members know what she did after 9/11," said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "She didn't come across while she was senator here as being a cheerleader for Wall Street."
Given the double digit lead in the polls, and the relative bout of amnesia New Yorkers are having, it would appear that Bernie has a big uphill climb ahead of him to pull off an upset, if only in New York
The Clinton camp is already stepping up the rhetoric, trying to put a greater sense of pressure on Bernie to make something happen in New York.
"We are too late in the calendar for the Sanders campaign to successfully spin a second-place finish in New York as some kind of moral victory," said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon. "A loss here has the potential to be decisive in the overall nomination fight."
However while Clinton is almost assured of winning New York tonight, should Bernie's surge continue, Hillary may find herself in deep trouble in the days ahead.
Live webcast from tonight's speech below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckn4sbEGvLU