The Democrat insiders have a fevah, and the only cure is more Hillary campaign events. Politico interviewed 77 Democrat strategists, campaign workers and general party insiders (anonymously, of course) to find out how they were feeling about the presumptive nominee thus far and the results were fairly dismal.

Four in 10 Democratic insiders in the early states warn that Hillary Clinton is not spending enough time on the campaign trail, making her vulnerable to possible challenges from the left and dampening the enthusiasm of progressives who are already committed to her.

The POLITICO Caucus — our weekly bipartisan pulse-taking of the most important activists, operatives and elected officials in Iowa and New Hampshire — also finds Democrats almost evenly divided over whether Clinton needs to take a firmer position on the trade battle that’s gripped Washington this week, but many approve of Bill Clinton’s efforts to be a more silent partner in his wife’s campaign.

What’s their chief complaint? In the case of at least one of them, they’re literally not feeling the love.

“She needs to step it up dramatically,” said a pro-Clinton Iowa Democrat, who — like all 77 respondents — completed the questionnaire anonymously in order to speak candidly.

“We have this need to feel well-loved every four years,” said an uncommitted New Hampshire Democrat. “If other candidates begin to make inroads, Clinton’s absence will be noted.”

I can understand half of this argument, at least to a certain extent. Your biggest supporters – whether we’re talking donors who need to crack open those wallets or volunteers who need to be motivated to get out there and knock on doors – want to feel that they are part of the team and being actively courted. There is no substitute for face time when you’re trying to heat up your support among the faithful and nobody likes feeling as if they’re being ignored or taken for granted. For that reason, it’s easy to see why the campaign insiders would like to see as much of Hillary as can be managed and not just these private, heavily vetted, scripted “listening” stops that she’s doing beyond the reach of the masses.

I suspect, however, that their desires may be thwarted. The original plan may have been for Hillary to ease into the normal campaign routine with another “listening tour” such as the one she did across New York State in 2001 and 2002, moving on to the big media events later. But it’s looking more and more as if her team has regrouped and decided that the only way she survives the series of scandal stories plaguing her campaign is to circle the wagons and stonewall the pesky media until they stop asking impertinent questions. It’s hard to stay focused on the touchy-feely story of the day about underpaid car wash attendants when Jake Tapper is shouting out rude questions about your email server. It’s bad enough that she’s going to be dragged back to DC in front of Trey Gowdy – perhaps multiple times – without having to let the press badger her every time the Mystery Machine breaks down.

Finally, what risk is she really running with her supporters by employing this hands off strategy? The Politico article cites insiders who “fear” that her lack of attention to the unwashed masses might lead to “her absence being noted” or her becoming vulnerable to “a challenge from her left.” Really? It looks to me as if she can treat her cheerleading squads pretty much the way she’s treated Congress and the rest of the country regarding her emails. Let them note her absence. Let them eat cake, for that matter. It’s not like they’ve got anywhere else to go. And as far as a challenge from her left goes, that’s already happened. She’s drawn a self avowed socialist and the guy who helped drive Baltimore into the ground. She doesn’t have anything to worry about.

You’ll note yet again that the respondents to this poll all answered anonymously. When they start showing up on camera to air these criticisms I’ll begin taking this all a bit more seriously. Maybe.