Dems give Clinton tepid support

Associated Press

DERRY, N.H.

Inside the arena, the roar was deafening when Hillary Rodham Clinton took the stage at the annual convention of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, with thousands jumping to their feet to welcome the party’s White House front-runner.

Outside the hall, a far less joyous conversation was taking place.

“She kind of turns me off,” said Marsha Campaniello, a 63-year-old real estate appraiser from Concord. “But I’d rather have a Democrat in there as opposed to a Republican.”

At ice cream shops and book stores, at summer fairs and fall festivals, Clinton is running into voters such as Campaniello. They’re Democrats, and some independents, too, weighing a desire to keep control of the White House against the deep ambivalence they feel toward Clinton.

The Associated Press interviewed nearly 70 Democratic and independent voters in the past two weeks, all at places where Clinton has campaigned in the first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Those voters expressed a litany of concerns. Many said they simply feel they lack a connection with Clinton, often for reasons they cannot seem to articulate.

“She certainly could manage the country,” said Jim Gallagher, a 61-year-old, real-estate investor from Manchester. “But she just rubs me the wrong way. But, hey, you don’t have to like her, right?”

Such tepid reactions have led Clinton, once a commanding favorite for the nomination, into a fall campaign in which she will have competition, be it from Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders or the possible late entry of Vice President Joe Biden.

Clinton still is the odds-on choice. No candidate in either field has as sophisticated a campaign operation or depth of support from the party establishment.

But the unenthusiastic reaction her candidacy receives from some Democratic voters underscores a central issue facing her campaign: Despite her decades on the public stage, Clinton struggles to inspire the kind of personal passion that catapulted Barack Obama into the White House.

Clinton appeared to acknowledge the challenge in a recent interview with the comedian Lena Dunham, saying of voting in presidential elections, “if you can’t get excited, be pragmatic.”

The public’s opinion on Clinton has steadily grown more negative since she returned to partisan politics, after a period of high ratings while she was secretary of state.

Most Democratic voters say they would back Clinton in the general election. But some said Clinton is trying to co-opt Sanders’ message, hoping to woo liberal voters by focusing on issues such as campaign finance and wage inequality.