If Hillary Clinton is to become the first female president, she'll have to do it differently than Barack Obama did in becoming our first African-American president.

The Obama coalition – women, Hispanics, African-Americans and young voters – seemed ripe for the picking for the former secretary of state, considering her opponent Donald Trump's remarks about women and Hispanics, his view that global warming, an issue important to millennials, is a hoax and his dogged pursuit of Obama's birth certificate.

But it has not turned out that way. With five weeks to go until Election Day, Clinton remains a slight favorite to become the 45th president. But the momentum appears to be behind Trump – 46 percent of his backers are enthusiastic about voting for him; only 33 percent of hers say that – and lackluster support from the Obama coalition appears to be a big reason why.

Among millennials, her support dropped 17 percent in the last month, and she and Trump both trail the combo of Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein among this group.

Clinton's waning support among millennials has clearly begun to worry her campaign. Michelle Obama spent a day this week at Pennsylvania colleges stumping for Clinton, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been deployed to campuses elsewhere to try to gin up support.

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Tom Steyer, the billionaire global warming alarmist, is financing efforts in eight battleground states aimed at raising awareness among millennials of Trump's global warming views. Longtime Clinton ally David Brock is engaged in a similar effort.

Writers, such as the New York Times' Paul Krugman, and celebs, such as Cher and Seth McFarlane, are urging young voters to "take it seriously," in the words of Krugman, and recall how protest votes for Ralph Nader in 2000 put George W. Bush in the White House rather than Al Gore.

"Casting a vote, a protest vote, for a third-party candidate that's going to lose may well affect the outcome," Clinton running mate Tim Kaine said last week. "It may well lead to a consequence that is deeply, deeply troubling. That's not a speculation – we've seen it in our country's history."

They could see it again in 2016. Trump leads by 1 in Colorado, where Johnson and Stein combine for 30 percent support among those 45 and younger. In Nevada, a 5-point lead for Clinton has become a 2-point lead for Trump largely because independents have abandoned Clinton for Johnson.

And don't look now, but Trump is beginning to make inroads among Hispanics and African-Americans. Trump is, for instance, within 35 points of Clinton among Hispanics in Nevada, where Romney lost, 75-24 percent. Trump is closer to Clinton than Romney was to Obama in Colorado, and he's at or above Romney's levels of support in Arizona and Florida.

Lionel Sosa, a Republican Hispanic strategist, said he expects Trump to end up with as much as a quarter of the Hispanic vote thanks to votes from conservative Latinos. "There is a base there," Sosa said. "Just as there is for any other group."

Same goes for African-Americans, where Trump's inroads have Democrats mobilizing in response. Bill Clinton, known at one time as the "first black president," plans to spend part of next week in North Florida speaking to African-Americans, and Hillary herself plans to visit three cities in Florida with significant African-American populations.

"Hillary Clinton's campaign is in panic mode. Full panic mode," Leslie Wimes, a South Florida-based president of the Democratic African-American Women's Caucus, told Politico. "They have a big problem because they thought Obama and Michelle saying, 'Hey, go vote for Hillary' would do it. But it's not enough."

The fact is, Clinton has failed to make a case for herself beyond the fact that she is a woman and Donald Trump is a basket of deplorables. Even her supposed victory in the first debate did not give voters any good reason to vote for her.

To capitalize on this, Trump needs to take advantage of his second bite at the debate apple and come prepared and disciplined. His issues resonate – crime remains a problem in minority neighborhoods, and the anti-establishment element is as strong in this cycle as any in recent memory. He just needs to remain disciplined in pushing them.

But it may not matter if voters in traditionally Democratic votes don't turn out for Hillary.