By RYAN SENECAL
Staff Writer
We are less than fifty days from the election and the race is getting tighter. In the middle of August, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had a substantial lead over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. As we are now in the middle of September, with the first Presidential debate on Sept. 26, it is close race.
Clinton has a slight lead in the average of polls, 45.7 percent to Trump’s 44.2 percent, according to Real Clear Politics. At this time in August, Clinton had about a six-point lead in the average of polls. The good for her is that she still has a solid lead in the Electoral College. Clinton seems to have 200 electoral votes locked down to Trump’s 164. It’s important to remember that it is the Electoral College that elects the next president. We all know what happened in 2000.
Trump is picking up momentum in the key states of Florida and Ohio while also maintaining a comfortable lead in Iowa. He is also closing in on Clinton in states like Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire and Colorado. Clinton still holds a substantial lead in the all-important state of Pennsylvania, which is key to a Trump victory. If he does not win this state, he will need to find another path to victory or he probably will not win at all. But for right now, Trump is closing in on the former Secretary of State, which is good considering we are heading into presidential debate season.
So why is Clinton’s lead suddenly diminishing? Well, when she called Trump supporters “a basket of deplorables,” it did not help. Some have compared it to former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s comments on the “47 percent.” Now, Trump has said some terrible things this election cycle, I’m not denying that. We should have learned from Romney’s comments not to alienate voters.
Clinton also became ill with pneumonia recently and was given antibiotics. She attended the ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in New York City. An observer took a video on their phone of Clinton leaving the event with staff and secret service around her. Clinton seemed to have fallen while getting into her van. She was taken to her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s apartment where she emerged 90 minutes later as if nothing had happened.
Clinton’s team later released that she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Sept. 9. There’s no question that Clinton and her campaign staff could have handled this better. It would not have been a big deal if her campaign released a statement on Sept. 9 or 10 saying that Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia and would take a few days to rest so she can get back on the campaign trail as soon as possible. Instead, Clinton chose to try to tough it out and keep going.
Clinton’s recent health scare has prompted conspiracy theorists to say that she has Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and other medical conditions. Clinton did release medical records but none of it was a long-term medical history report. Until those records are released, expect the conspiracy theories to keep coming. Trump also released his medical history, which showed that he is overweight and on medicine to keep his cholesterol down.
So why have there been conspiracy theories on Clinton’s health but not Trump’s? After all, he is overweight and has high cholesterol, but I guess a conspiracy of him having atherosclerosis doesn’t seem to have the same ring as Parkinson’s or epilepsy.
The problem with Clinton’s handling of her health problem recently is that people feel that they can’t trust her. Some feel that Democrats should replace her with someone else as she is starting to slip in the polls.
Incumbent Republican senators are starting pull ahead of their Democratic challengers. The Senate is a must-win for Democrats if Clinton were to become president. It the only way she could get her progressive agenda through, especially when nominating Supreme Court justices.
As different as 2016 is, it still has some characteristics of a regular election cycle. Trump and Clinton are running a tight race in the swing states as well as those that were considered states that were safe for Democrats. It will become clearer as time goes on as to who could win the White House.
