Hillary Clinton’s campaign is clearly in panic mode. Burdened by scandals and her own out-of-touch persona, the former First Lady is losing ground to self-described Socialist Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
Salena Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune reported that Clinton’s campaign had attendees sign a loyalty pledge to attend the event, which was geared towards millennials.
Hillary Has Millennials sign loyalty-commitment pledge in order to attend #cleveland event http://t.co/NJshGnYt4ppic.twitter.com/XJF8VWie85
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZitoTrib) September 7, 2015
Zito spoke with some attendees who described themselves as leaning towards voting for Bernie Sanders. And it appears Hillary’s campaign missed an opportunity to connect with them by tripping over the former First Lady’s inability to connect with her audience.
“The event here wasn’t just a failure to connect with millennials, but a fundamental inability to read her audience and adjust her speech — or perhaps laziness, or a sense of entitlement that she shouldn’t have to work this hard for support.
Perhaps it was all of that.
“Fired up! Ready to go!” an early speaker shouted as he prepared the crowd for Clinton. He received only a smattering of polite claps, despite several attempts to get the crowd excited.
Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, running for a U.S. Senate seat next year, tried the same line, with the same results.
Strickland also tried some good old-fashioned speechifying that ended with him screaming at the audience. The kids kept asking each other, “Who is this guy?” The applause was sparse, the moment awkward.
A good politician would have noticed when he took the stage that the audience was filled with kids who likely did not grow up in Ohio (19 percent of Case Western Reserve University students are foreign-born) and were barely 12 years old when Clinton battled to win the state in 2008.
Instead, Clinton launched into a memorial for Ohio congressmen who were significant long before these kids were politically aware, then thanked the kids for their votes in 2008. (Again, they would have been 12 back then.)
“You lifted me up when I was down and out,” she said, referring to Ohio voters who got her flailing 2008 campaign back on its feet temporarily.
There wasn’t the sound of crickets chirping, but no one picked up what she put down.”
If the former First Lady’s campaign is going to require people attending her event to pledge support to her, the crowds might get sparse. After all, if people are coming to witness the downward spiral of an out of touch and entitled politician, they might be hesitant to pledge anything, even if that is their ticket to the event.
What pledge would you make for Hillary? Please comment below.
H/T: Pittsburgh Tribune