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Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Is Unraveling, President Obama Sympathizes

By Val Powell
Published on: 18:25 PST, Jan 27, 2016

Hillary Clinton is at risk of losing the first two states to rival Bernie Sanders, judging by the self-proclaimed democtatic socialist’s recent surge in the polls. To many people’s surprise, Sanders has caught up with Clinton’s numbers and has overtaken her in some states.

Recent polls show Sanders with a slim lead over Clinton in Iowa and 19 percent ahead in New Hampshire just before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. As a result, President Barack Obama came to Clinton’s aid to encourage her amid her tough fight with Sanders.

“I think that Hillary is tough and she has been through this before and she could anticipate it. If you are a front-runner, then you are under more scrutiny and everybody is going to pick you apart,” Obama said of Hillary Clinton in an interview with Politico.

Clinton has maintained the top spot ever since entering the race last year. The two had exchanged cutting remarks on the debate stage before, digging up past controversial issues as they tried to win the favor of the public. Clinton criticized Sanders for siding with gun manufacturers on the issue of gun ownership while the Vermont Senator took a jab at Clinton’s ties with Wall Street.

Political pundits are predicting that what happened to Clinton in 2008, when she was the front-runner before losing the state of Iowa to her rival Obama, could happen again.

Many of Sanders’ supporters are young people who find his visions like promoting healthcare for all and free college education very relevant.

However, the President rejected any comparisons to his own campaign to that of the former Secretary of State, and instead drew a contrast between his 2008 race and the upcoming elections.

Obama said that Bernie Sanders has become the “bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before.” While he thinks the 74-year-old democratic presidential candidate had the “luxury of being a complete long shot,” he said that Hillary Clinton “came in with the both privilege and burden of being perceived as the front-runner.”

“Her strengths, which are the fact that she’s extraordinarily experienced and wicked smart, and knows every policy inside and out, sometimes could make her more cautious and her campaign more prose than poetry,” Obama stated.

The White House has previously stated that Obama is expected to stay out the Democratic primary campaign and is unlikely to endorse any candidate, although Clinton has been projecting the image that she will continue Obama’s legacy.

Amid Clinton’s eroding support, Elizabeth Warren added to the list of people who have chosen not to endorse the Democratic front-runner. In her speech before the Senate on Thursday, during the sixth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Warren declared that she will not be endorsing Hillary Clinton.

Warren, through her speech, painted Clinton as someone who is not truly a Progressive. She also addressed corruption in campaign finance, and the impact of Citizens United. She also discussed ways by which federal and state powers could be reinstated to regulate campaign contributions.

Another factor that could eventually drive Clinton down is her legal issues involving the use of a private server to receive official emails while she was serving as the Secretary of State.

The State Department had already proposed to delay the release the last of Clinton’s official emails until February 29 – after the first presidential primaries. However, the State Department could possibly face legal charges for depriving voters of important information about Clinton’s performance while serving as Secretary of State.

Just recently, the inspector general of the intelligence agencies identified additional classified emails on her private server, including emails that contain intel on stealthy “Special Access Programs.” Hillary Clinton has also been quite inconsistent in her statement regarding the email story, and it is putting her in an even more precarious position.

[Image by Scott Olson, Getty Images]

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