The Bernie Sanders campaign is winning Democratic voter’s hearts while the Hillary Clinton campaign is running on electability, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said Wednesday on Morning Joe.
Todd referred to the essential difference between the two campaigns as a "passion gap," and said that the Clinton campaign has chosen to brush off its candidate's lack of passion.
"It’s a hearts and minds issue, and Sanders is winning the hearts, and the Clinton campaign is basically ceding the heart issue," Todd said.
Todd said that the Clinton campaign is running on electability, airing advertisements that assure voters Clinton is the best candidate because she will win. However, her slipping poll numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire don’t back up that claim, Todd said.
"They went up this week with an electability ad saying, ‘Who is going to be the best to take these folks on?’ Well, what is that three weeks before Iowa? That’s a concession. ‘Hey, you know, we know you’re not that enthusiastic about us, but hey, don’t you wanna win?' But of course the numbers right now both in Iowa and New Hampshire actually don’t back that up," Todd said.
He said that even young voters, a group that many thought would be in the Clinton camp, have sided with Sanders because of his passion.
"I think there's some passion gap here that’s missing for Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders has it in spades, particularly with younger voters, and everything the Clinton campaign has tried hasn't quite fired up a group of voters that I think a lot of us thought would be fired up," Todd said. "We thought there would be a lot of women rallying to her side. You haven't had that moment yet. Maybe it’ll come. But it hasn't happened."