'We don't like Hillary as a package': Why Clinton just doesn't feel the love from some U.S. voters

When Hillary Clinton reached an historic milestoneearlier this month,becomingthe first woman poised to be a major party's nominee for president of the United States, self-avowed feminist Kathleen Graves was unmoved.

"I watched her speech and felt nothing," said Graves, a34-year-old liberal andfounder of the Brooklyn-based group Babes for Bernie (Sanders), Clinton's rival for the Democratic Party nomination."It was sort oflike an eye roll, a shrug."

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Clinton obviously has many Democraticsupporterswho see her as a highly intelligent trailblazer with the experience needed to hold the Oval Office.

But Graves's apathy toward that historic moment in California where Clinton secured enough delegates for the Democratic nomination was shared by many Sanders supporters and illustrates a noticeable lack of enthusiasm for Clinton from more liberal-leaning Democrats.

Some of thatstems from differences with her on policy, with some of those Democrats feeling that she's too far to the right and a war hawk who may condemn the practices of Wall Street yet gladly accepts campaign contributions from it.

But, like many Republicans,those Democratsalso have concernsabout her character andseem to hold somecommon beliefs with their political rivals whoquestion how trustworthy she isand see her as apoliticalopportunist.

'She is not trustworthy'

"It's the whole package deal. Just like we loveBernie as a package, we don't like Hillary as a package, this is nota one-off thing," Graves said. "She is not trustworthy."

One might think that Clinton would be attracting widespread support. Sheis facingoff against Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee anda political neophytewho has been accused ofracismand misogynyand whose controversialstances andremarkshavealienated him frommany conservativeswho have vowed never to vote for him.

Instead, Clinton is alsomarking history in a different way, garneringsome of the worst negative poll numbersof any presidential candidate in recenttimes, numbers that would be record-breaking if not for her presumed rival for the White House, whose negativesare even worse.

Last month, the statistical analytics website FiveThirtyEight.com declared that "no past candidate comes close to Clinton, and especially Trump, in terms of engendering strong dislike a little more than six months before the election."

Her lack of widespreadsupport isa reminder thatClintonhas been one of the mostpolarizingfigures in American politics.Republicans certainly have no love forU.S. PresidentBarackObama, but someseem to hold a special ire forClinton, one based more on character than policy.

Indeed, as Tom Nichols, a former aide to a Republican senator andcontributor to the conservative online magazine The Federalist, said,given the choicebetween the two, most conservatives wouldprefer Clinton over the current president, viewing her as more of a centrist.

Hillary Clinton presumptive Democratic nominee for president

8 years ago

Duration 2:38

It's clear tonight that this fall's US election will - for the first time in American history - feature a woman running for the top job, for one of the main parties.

From the start, when she joined her husband, Bill, in the White House,Clinton ruffled the feathersof some Republicanswho weren't pleased that shewas going to play an active role in policy-making. Eschewing the traditional role of championing causes for the presidential spouse, Clinton took on reforming health care, an endeavour that ended in failure.

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Even before that. on the campaign trail, shealienated some womenand stay-at-home momswhen, in defending her career, she said:"I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies and had teas."

From there, it was one controversy after another. Republicans fixated on a number of scandals including controversialdealings in real estate (Whitewater), accusationsshe ordered the firing ofthe White House travel staffto put in people with ties to her and her husband (Travelgate)and allegationsshe read FBIfilesrequested by the director of White House security on political opponents(Filegate).

And now the latestcontroversy over her State Departmentemailshasprompted concerns among some Democratsover whether she could face indictment.

The fact that Clinton has alwaysdenied any wrongdoingand has never been charged for any of thesescandals hashardly mollifiedher Republican opponents.

'Symbol of getting away with it'

"What bothers Republicans about HillaryClinton? She is the symbol of getting away with it," said Nichols.

Conservative author and columnist Mona Chareneasilyrattled off the list of Clinton scandals during her time with her husband in the White House.But she also zeroed in on Clinton's mostrecent actions as secretary of state, including questions surroundingforeign donations to the Clinton Foundation and arms contracts awarded to those donors.

While Charenhas also a profound distaste for Trump and vowed not to vote for the real estate mogul, she does share some agreementwith his provocative remarks made last week, that Clinton might be the "most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."

"I think she's a profoundlycorruptpublic official whowouldprobably be one of the mostcorruptindividuals ever towinthe presidency, which I expect she will," she said.

Clinton'sdevotion to political principleshas also come under scrutiny, with critics claiming her positions change according tothepolitical winds of the day. Although viewed as a political centrist, someobservers say she hasmovedto the leftinan attempt to win over Sanderssupporters.

"She's such a chameleon, she's so willing to change her position,who knows what she believes anymore," said Charen.

GeoffreySkelley, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, offered a softer appraisal, preferring to use the word "flexible" when describing Clinton's alleged changing views.

'Cardinal sins'

"I think some people would say she has the tendency to be a little bit of apoliticalweathervane. And that leads topeoplequestioninghow genuine she iswhenshe says for something or against something," Skelley said.

"Whether it's trueor not the move to the left is because of Sanders,would it shock anyone ifClintonwould signoff on the TPP [trade deal]if she had to,when shehas saidshe opposed it?"

And while liberal SanderssupporterGraves and die-hard conservative Nichols likely share little political ideology, theyboth tend tobelievethat Clinton issmugandfeels entitled to the presidency, having toiled innational politics for threedecades if the eight years when her husband was in the Oval Office areincluded.

"And those arekind of cardinal sins in Americanpolitics," Nichols said.