So what exactly is that problem? It can be hard to tell. There are certainly people disturbed by the email controversy, but like many Clinton scandals it sounds bad as long as you don’t actually think too much about it, and just get swayed by the fact that it’s being covered a lot so something terrible must have happened. Not too many voters are going to tell you that they’re turning away from Clinton because of their deep and longstanding concern over the problem of sensitive diplomatic information passing through private email systems.

It may well be that many of the voters who have abandoned her hadn’t thought about the presidential race much in the first place, and just said they were behind her because she was the only one running they had heard of. Now that Sanders is mounting a serious campaign they have another option, and the more liberal ones like what they hear from him. But it’s hard to come up with any reason that Clinton should have turned off women in particular — more likely is that some of those who supported her did so reflexively and are now rethinking their choice.

If that’s the case, most of them would in all likelihood be perfectly happy to vote for Clinton in the general election, and maybe even in the primaries when it comes down to it. There may be an analogy to how African-American voters looked at Barack Obama in 2008, where at first they were skeptical of his candidacy, but came around once it became clear he actually had a chance to win.