Clinton Speaks To Mostly Empty Hall In Ohio

Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, but only a couple hundred people turned out to hear her views on women’s issues: it was not a packed house.

These “crowd” shots from the Clinton event are a bad sign for the Clinton camp. The audience was no where near big enough to pack the 2,000-person venue. Many of the attendees appear to be reporters.

Fox News’ Ed Henry provided tweeted out two images of the hall. The first one shows the event from the back of the small crowd. The second photo reveals that a large portion of the hall was empty. The low turnout is surprising considering  the Ohio State campus is just a couple miles away, as Henry pointed out in a subsequent tweet.

 

Very small crowd for @HillaryClinton event in Ohio — what you'll see on tv (left), what you won't see (right) pic.twitter.com/SY6nPGrWbu

— Ed Henry (@edhenry) September 10, 2015

Reporter Jake Gibson sent out this image which appears to come from during the actual event. He described the room as having “decent energy” despite the low turnout.

@HillaryClinton just wrapped Women for Hillary event in Columbus. Decent energy crowd but not a full room. pic.twitter.com/UKIuEO6Urf

— Jake Gibson (@JakeBGibson) September 10, 2015

The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty also tweeted out this image of the nearly empty room.

Not exactly a packed house for @HillaryClinton women's event in Columbus. pic.twitter.com/uDB4U0MZ8M

— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) September 10, 2015

Hillary Clinton is not faring well in the latest polls. One in 3 self-identified Democrats say she is not honest or trustworthy in a Quinnipiac poll out of Iowa on Thursday morning.  A recent NBC and Marist College survey  also spells trouble for Clinton in New Hampshire, where Bernie Sanders leads Clinton 41 to 32 — a 20-point shift from where the race stood in July.

There won’t be a vote of any sort until mid-January — at the earliest and Clinton remains solidly ahead in national polling, but there is now a realistic chance that Sanders will win the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Momentum, once lost, is very hard to get back and all of the momentum is with Democratic candidates not named “Hillary Clinton” at the moment. The monthly release of e-mails Clinton sent at the State Department will continue through the rest of this year and won’t make things any better for her presidential prospects.