Uh oh. Jon Ralson, Nevada’s top political reporter, posted a surprising story today on his popular political blog, Ralston Reports: "Team Clinton tries to lower Nevada expectations with incredible (i.e. false) claims.”
After the disaster in snow-white New Hampshire and the near-death experience in colorless Iowa, Team Clinton suddenly was trying to make Nevada sound as if its rainbow of voters did not exist.
Internal polling must be cratering because HRC campaign leaders are now claiming wildly false statements, trying to make Nevada seem miraculously lilly white overnight. It’s an agreed upon tactic apparently because several staffers are repeating it:
“There’s going to be a narrowing in both places (South Carolina and Nevada) — we’re clear-eyed about that,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told NBC's Chuck Todd, as reported by BuzzFeed's Ruby Cramer. “There’s an important Hispanic element to the Democratic caucus in Nevada. But it’s still a state that is 80 percent white voters. You have a caucus-style format, and he’ll have the momentum coming out of New Hampshire presumably, so there’s a lot of reasons he should do well.”
...
This canard was later repeated Wednesday by Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, according to Politico's John Bresnahan. And it was then repeated on a conference call, ABC's Liz Kruetz reported.
Canard indeed. Or maybe that’s canary, as in coal mine. Man the firewalls!
Gosh. I look forward to the lowering of expectations for SC. How long until Mook feeds this line,"No one but white racists there, and of course they are all BernieBros,” wink wink?
I understand the desire of Team Clinton to lower expectations in Nevada after being crushed by Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. But both Mook and Fallon know that 80 percent figure is ludicrous, and the attempt to make Nevada seem like Iowa and New Hampshire is a spin too far.
We are with you Jon. I’m a little dizzy myself. We can all read the U.S. Census Bureau data in my graphic choice at the top, which shows a steady increase in diversity among the people of Nevada. In fact, in 2010, when this data was collected, the white population had already fallen to under 55% of the state’s population. Now, of course the Campaign may simply be trying to make the claim that since 15% of the population may be considered white Hispanics, they don’t count anymore as really Latino. If that’s the case, uh, good luck with that!
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/32000.html
So what about all those polls?
There is no reliable polling in Nevada -- at least not yet. But the conventional wisdom had been that Clinton had a huge advantage here, especially because Team Sanders did not arrive until October. Not anymore.
I don't smell a rat. I smell something much more pungent from the Clinton campaign: fear.
P.S. — Anyone know what kind of detergent is best to get mook off my clothes? I just spent weeks brushing off the brock, so this is really frustrating.