She’s been the overwhelming favourite to succeed Barack Obama since Betfair’s Next President market opened, and is the shortest priced ever at this stage of a US election cycle. She couldn’t have handpicked a more toxic opponent than Donald Trump, and enjoys a massive advantage in terms of campaign organisation. Yet Democrats are getting worried that Hillary Clinton has not sealed the deal yet, and momentum is slowly shifting towards Trump.
Clinton’s poll lead has shrunk since securing a massive bounce following the Democrat Convention, even disappearing altogether in some polls, and the market has moved accordingly. From a peak of 1.26, equivalent to an 79% likelihood, the former First Lady is now out to 1.47 (68%) and her backers are nervously awaiting to see the fallout from a <strong>terrible weekend news cycle.
Her problems clearly pre-date Friday’s comments that half of Trump’s supporters were a ‘basket of deplorables’ – eerily reminiscent of Mitt Romney’s 47 per cent gaffe that was widely assumed to have hurt his 2012 bid. Rather the damage is primarily the result of nearly two years of investigation into her private e-mails and the scrutiny hasn’t stopped yet.