"Hillary Clinton is in a stronger position than Donald Trump, but it will be competitive," said Joel Benenson, Clinton's senior strategist and pollster. "All these races are."

None of these Democrats said they expected Clinton to lose – but many said she could. For the most part, it is her qualities as a candidate that keep her allies up at night, not her fitness to be president, which they categorically do not question.

When Democrats assess Clinton, they tend to zero in on her communication skills: She is scripted and thin-skinned, they say. And with a sigh, they acknowledge the persistent opinion among a lot of Americans that they just don't like her. Polls long have shown that many voters do not trust Clinton and that a majority view her unfavourably.

Hart said being seen as likable was "about the lowest bar" for a candidate, and yet Clinton had lower likeability numbers today than she did when the campaign began.

It was cold comfort that Trump's were worse, several Democrats said.

If Donald Trump continues to call Hillary Clinton an "enabler" of her husband's behaviour, her supporters see an opportunity to outclass her opponent. Matt Davidson

Among other potential problems identified by supporters: Clinton's unpopularity with white men, questions about whether her family philanthropic foundation helped donors and friends, and lingering clouds from her tenure at the State Department, including her private email system, the Benghazi attacks in which four Americans were killed and her support for military intervention in Libya.

There are also concerns particular to an election against Trump. How, several Democrats asked, should Clinton deal with such an unpredictable antagonist? Supporters see potential problems for her in Trump's omnipresence in American media, while she neither likes nor excels at media interviews.


They said there were upsides and downsides to Trump's insults and taunts, including those having to do with her husband's past infidelities.

If Trump continues to call Clinton an "enabler" of her husband's behaviour, her supporters see an opportunity to outclass her opponent.

Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama watch live the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. CIA/Twitter

"You blame the woman for male infidelity?" Clinton supporter Senator Dianne Feinstein said last week. "I mean, to me, it was kind of bizarre. You would visit the sins of one on the other? I don't think there's any woman in America who doesn't understand that is wrong."

Bill Clinton himself was a double-edged sword, longtime supporters said. Hillary Clinton has no better advocate, and one who is now working at a furious pace to rally Democrats in the last primary contests.

But with his own prodigious political talents, the former president also shows up his wife's shortcomings on the stump, even if inadvertently, and is perhaps even more prone than she to going off script when someone gets under his skin.

Policy details

Another challenge, two people who know her well said, would be to show how Hillary Clinton could tackle issues people cared about without letting her wallow in weedy policy details.


A supporter wears campaign buttons before the start of an event for Hillary Clinton in Louisville, Kentucky. Luke Sharrett

The campaign is making an effort to highlight Clinton's compassion. For example, an ad shows her consoling a 10-year-old who is worried about her family being deported. "You let me do the worrying," Clinton says, hugging the girl.

Experts said there was only so much Clinton could do to address her skills on the stump or to alter perceptions that had formed over nearly three decades in the public eye.

"They're dealing with 20 years, almost 30 years now, of public narratives about her," said Dan Pfeiffer, former White House senior adviser in the Obama administration. "I don't think that's fixable in the next six months."