[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
Paul Begala tried to put the best spin on Hillary Clinton's sharp decline of support among women voters on the 14 September 2015 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 but even he was forced to admit, " If I were running her campaign, we would take this very seriously." Begala later added, "If I were coaching her – I'd hate to say this; she would hate this – watch Donald Trump....You ask Trump a question – and yeah, sometimes, he answers; sometimes, he doesn't. He talks about what he wants to talk about."
The Daily Beast's Patricia Murphy gave a more blunt analysis: "These poll numbers are a disaster for Hillary Clinton, because these are the women...she needs to bring along with her. That's her base if she's going to even have a chance." Murphy later underlined that Hillary "has a big authenticity issue," and wondered, "Is she going to get to a general election? I didn't think we would be asking that question right now. But her numbers with women are going down so far, so fast, they've got to be very worried at this point."