Amid sagging poll numbers and criticism that she may not be physically up to the job of being president, Hillary Clinton returned to the campaign trail Thursday and declared that she is ready for battle against Republican Donald Trump, hoping to regain lost momentum as the White House race enters its home stretch.
Mrs. Clinton made her first public appearance since collapsing at a Sept. 11 memorial service on Sunday by giving a speech in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was a crucial moment in the contest as she desperately tries to put her campaign back on track after a week of distractions and embarrassing missteps.
Not only has her double-digit lead against Mr. Trump all but evaporated, according to polling, but the former first lady also has had to fend off familiar accusations that her political operation is secretive at best and blatantly dishonest at worst.
After a 20-minute speech before a supportive crowd, Mrs. Clinton took a half-dozen questions from reporters, trying to throw cold water on her 285-day streak without a press conference. But even that went south quickly as she tried to downplay the fact that her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, apparently was unaware of Mrs. Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis until the campaign publicly released the information.
Trying to put the turmoil in the rear-view mirror, Mrs. Clinton struck a defiant note by telling a raucous crowd that she always expected the polls to tighten and that she is ready for the critical eight weeks that lie ahead.
“People accuse me of all kinds of things. You probably have seen that. But nobody ever accuses me of quitting, and I will never give up, I will never walk away, no matter how tough the going gets,” she said.
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Moments earlier, she took the stage to James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” poking fun at her illness and trying to reassure voters that she is in fine health a day after her doctor declared her fit to serve as commander in chief.
“I’m actually asking Americans to hold me accountable for my ideas and hold my opponent accountable for his,” she said.
It remains to be seen whether the seemingly healthy Mrs. Clinton is able to regain what she has lost over the past week.
Her pneumonia diagnosis — and the campaign cover-up that preceded it — followed her reference to half of Mr. Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables.” The biting comment seemed to energize her Republican opponent’s base.
At the same time, polls have tightened dramatically, all but erasing Mrs. Clinton’s double-digit lead on the heels of the Democratic National Convention.
The latest Real Clear Politics average of all polls gives Mrs. Clinton a 1.8-point advantage, and a handful of surveys have shown Mr. Trump ahead. Polls also have shown that Mrs. Clinton has fallen behind in key battleground states such as Ohio and Florida and that the massive leads she had in Michigan, Virginia and elsewhere have dwindled to mid-single digits.
With those daunting challenges, political analysts say, Mrs. Clinton’s appearance Thursday was especially important. Going any longer without a public appearance could have doomed the campaign.
“Being visible, especially now, is critical to Clinton’s candidacy. The voters need to hear from her directly to explain what happened and see that she is recovering. If voters are left to imagine what has happened, the Clinton campaign has lost control of the narrative,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston who studies presidential politics. “Campaigns are about filling the message void. If voters hear one message without the other, the message that is heard wins.”
Her 10-minute session with reporters that involved just six questions makes it unclear whether the 285-day streak without a press conference remains intact, and Mrs. Clinton had to explain why Mr. Kaine seemingly was unaware of the pneumonia diagnosis. Mr. Kaine has refused to say when he learned of the health issue.
“I communicated with Tim,” she said. She refused to give a specific timetable but acknowledged that her campaign mishandled the situation.
“My campaign has said they could have been faster, and I agree with that. I certainly expect them to be as focused and quick as possible,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump kept the focus on policy and avoided addressing Mrs. Clinton’s return to the campaign trail. Instead, he delivered a speech on economic policy in New York, taking shots at his opponent and her economic team for backing trade deals that he says have hurt the U.S. economy.
“The same so-called experts advising Hillary Clinton are the same people who gave us NAFTA, China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, the job-killing trade deal with South Korea, and now the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” the billionaire businessman said.
Mr. Trump’s taped appearance on “The Dr. Oz Show” also aired Thursday, as the Republican tried to assuage any doubt that he is physically unfit to be president.
Mrs. Clinton said it was little more than a publicity stunt.
“I’ll never be the showman my opponent is, and that’s OK with me,” she said.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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