On CNN, Jeffrey falsely asserted Clinton has "high negatives in her own party"

On the July 5 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Human Events Online editor Terry Jeffrey asserted that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has "high negatives in her own party." In fact, recent polls show Clinton's unfavorable ratings among Democrats to be under 20 percent, which is comparable to those of the three leading Republican presidential candidates within their party.

A June 26-27 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that 18 percent of Democratic respondents had an "unfavorable opinion" of Clinton, while 26 percent of Republican respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Sen. John McCain (AZ) and 15 percent of Republicans had an unfavorable opinion of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Clinton's favorable and unfavorable ratings among Democrats were both two points higher than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's favorable and unfavorable ratings among Republicans. (In this same poll, less than 20 percent had an unfavorable opinion of each of the three leading Democrats -- with Sen. Barack Obama (IL) at 18 percent and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) at 14 percent.)

Similarly, in a June 26-28 CBS News poll, 14 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, while 20 percent of Republicans had an unfavorable opinion of McCain and 12 percent of Giuliani. Romney's unfavorable rating among Republican respondents (8 percent) was lower than Clinton's rating among Democratic respondents, while Clinton's favorable rating was 45 points higher than Romney's in that poll, with most polled either undecided or not familiar enough with Romney to respond. (Less than 15 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable opinion of each of the three leading Democrats -- with Obama at 13 percent and Edwards at 12 percent.)

From the July 5 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

DONNA BRAZILE (CNN political analyst): She doesn't really need an endorsement. She needs to go out there and convince the American people that this is not another four or eight years of [former president] Bill Clinton. This is four or eight years of Hillary Clinton, who will bring about much-needed change in this country.

JEFFREY: The good thing for my party about the emergence of Hillary is that she has very high negatives, not just across the country with Republicans. She has high negatives in her own party, even though she is likely to be the nominee.

Given that the war is likely to be the dominant issue and it's going to be tough for the Republicans to beat a Democrat in '08, it will be helpful if Hillary Clinton is the nominee, because it will motivate the conservative base and people who really don't like her to get out and vote.

BRAZILE: But her positives -- strong leader, someone who is decisive -- will outweigh all of those negatives that you mentioned.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX (host): And, Donna, who's the big Republican, the big get, the endorsement for Republicans?

—B.J.L.