In fact, there are many obvious signs suggesting that Clinton’s aloofness has hurt her image since kicking off her campaign. Her favorability numbers are now indistinguishable from several of the leading Republican presidential contenders. A late-April NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found an equal number of respondents viewing her favorably as unfavorably (42/42), with her unfavorables jumping six points in a month’s time. Only one-quarter of voters regarded her as trustworthy and honest, a double-digit drop from last year’s standing. Even though she’s a well-known politician, her numbers have been surprisingly volatile this early in the campaign, with no guarantee of stabilizing.

One of the biggest warning signs come from a group that she’s been assiduously courting: Democratic millennials. Follow Clinton’s Twitter feed, and you’ll see a steady stream of base-pleasing shout-outs for gay rights (“Well done, Ireland,” she wrote Saturday on the country’s gay-marriage referendum), celebrity references to underscore her hipness, even a promotion for a Clinton-branded pantsuit T-shirt. But a new Pew Research Center poll found that her support among younger Democratic voters has dipped significantly over the past year. Her favorability with that core voting group is down to 72 percent, the lowest among all the party’s constituencies tested, and a 15-point drop since 2007. For all the talk that the media has become passe among younger voters, it’s likely that the unfavorable coverage has impacted their perception of Clinton.