Halperin on Hillary’s Dropping Poll Numbers: Sanders Can Create Her ‘a Lot of Trouble’
[rush transcript]
SCARBOROUGH: “Let’s talk politics. The Democratic race for president is changing this morning. And a brand new Bloomberg poll suggests Bernie Sanders is chipping away at Hillary Clinton’s commanding leads.”
BRZEZINSKI: “In Iowa, Clinton has dropped seven points from last month while Sanders has climbed 8 to 24percent. That’s quite a surge. It must be just strange, like a Sarah Palin-esque thing. Right. It’s just not serious, right? Challengers Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee made barely a mark. The race continuous to tighten in New Hampshire where Clinton seems to decline of 6 points equal Sanders 6-point gain. It is just crazy, Mark Halperin? It’s just not serious, no one take for serious, right?”
HALPERIN: “The way I look at it is like Pat Buchanan and George Herbert Walker Bush in '92. Bernie Sanders is still a long way from threatening to beat her in the nomination, but in these two states, that we polled Iowa and New Hampshire simultaneously, he is now within 25 points of her and he may not beat her, but he can create a lot of trouble for her. He can extend the nomination fight, he can make her -- pull her further to the left. And what's interesting about these polls is in these two states where the voters are paying the most close attention, he's a lot closer than he is nationally. And on things like willingness this to fight Wall Street, he's doing better than her in voters' view. And then people say they're voting for him not as a protest but because they like him. The Clinton people can laugh off the poll and say we're still ahead but if on a primary night, caucus night, he got a quarter of the vote. That’s being trouble for her.”
BRZEZINSKI: “I don't think the Clinton people are laughing it off. I think they'll look at the effectiveness of his message and they'll work on their own, which is exactly what should be happening. I think the media laughs him off.”
HALPERIN: “I shouldn't say laugh it off, but they're spinning expectations and say, well, if he got 50 percent of the vote that would be good enough. But this shows that he has grown, obviously, a lot but also that voters like him for a reason. He’s doing better with men than she is. Than he is with women. And he is seen as a credible person.”
