Last Week Clinton Admitted She Was A Lousy Candidate. Then She Demonstrated Why.

During last week’s Democratic debate in Miami, Secretary Hillary Clinton made an admission that most political reporters and observers already acknowledged as fact: she is not a good political candidate.

“I’m not a natural politician, in case you haven’t noticed, like my husband or President Obama,” Clinton told The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty.

Over the following few days, Clinton set out to demonstrate exactly how lousy a candidate she is.

Minutes before Nancy Reagan’s funeral service on Friday in Simi Valley, Clinton told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that Mrs. Reagan helped “start a national conversation” about HIV and AIDS.

That comment drew a harsh rebuke from many on the left, including some criticism among Clinton’s own backers, and resulted in a rare apology from Clinton.

Then on Saturday, an overzealous Clinton told an Ohio crowd of her primary opponent Bernie Sanders, “I don’t know where he was when I was trying to get health care in ’93 and ’94.” As if on cue, Sanders campaign responded in devastating fashion:

Sunday brought two more gaffes at a CNN town hall in Columbus, Ohio. Clinton first faced a woman, Teresa O’Donnell, who said her healthcare costs more than doubled under ObamaCare, from $490 per month to $1,081 for a family of four. “I would like to vote Democratic, but it’s cost me a lot of money,” O’Donnell said. Despite the legitimate question, Clinton demonstrated her tin ear and stunningly told O’Donnell to “keep shopping” for a better health care plan.

Then came Clinton’s attack on our nation’s coal industry, in which she pledged to end coal. “We’re gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Clinton said. Her campaign came out with a mop on Monday to clean up her remarks, arguing they were “misconstrued” and that Clinton “wasn’t very clear.” Despite that half-hearted spin, Clinton’s message was received loud and clear in coal country, as Democrats, Republicans, and industry experts all criticized Clinton’s remarks.

Finally, on Monday night during an answer in which Clinton defended her support of regime change around the world, she told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, “Libya was a different kind of calculation, and we didn’t lose a single person.” The tone-deaf answer seemingly overlooked the four Americans who died in Benghazi.

In any other election year, a string of gaffes this bad would have resulted in days of negative media coverage and scrutiny. But 2016 is no ordinary election year, and as a result, Democrats may be stuck with Hillary “Not A Natural Politician” Clinton.

The question that triggered Clinton’s admission about her abilities as a candidate was one about her honesty. Since she launched her campaign almost one year ago, public opinion concerning Clinton’s favorability has steadily declined and her honest and trustworthy numbers remain underwater.

Clinton’s disastrous last five days serves as a microcosm of her campaign at large and explains the trust gap she faces among the electorate. Even Bernie Sanders has noted Clinton’s pattern, saying she has “evolved” and “apologized” repeatedly throughout the campaign.

Historically, facing a string of adversity such as this, Clinton’s campaigns have announced so-called “resets.” Her 2016 campaign has publicly “reset” numerous times already and will undoubtedly continue this bizarre practice.

But a reset won’t fix the campaign’s biggest problem: a flawed candidate.