Salena Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently attended a Hillary event in Cleveland and provided a stunning report at Real Clear Politics.

Hillary Misses Mark With Millennials

From a distance, the visual of students lining up along Bellflower Road in this Rust Belt city’s University Circle neighborhood was good B-roll for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, seemingly showcasing her appeal to young people.

It also was an opportunity to claim she was building a firewall of supporters for Ohio’s March primary, should Joe Biden step in or Bernie Sanders catch up in a meaningful way.

That initial impression was quickly dispelled.

What looked like a block-long line turned out to be a crowd that could barely fill one-fourth of a football field. And the students in attendance? Well, they weren’t exactly there to support the former secretary of State.

“I am sort of a Bernie (Sanders) fan. I also had nothing else to do at 10 in the morning,” said Brian Miller, a chemical engineering student from Pittsburgh, waiting with more than a dozen friends for the event to start.

David Lituchy of Morgantown, W.Va., was there on the off-chance he’d see a different Clinton: “I am here for Bill. He would definitely liven things up here.”

He said he’s leaning toward Sanders, too.

Such sentiment wasn’t anecdotal; scores of students expressed it, and you didn’t need to interview anyone to know that Clinton has political problems beyond her email controversy.

The event here wasn’t just a failure to connect with millennials, but a fundamental inability to read her audience and adjust her speech — or perhaps laziness, or a sense of entitlement that she shouldn’t have to work this hard for support.
Perhaps it was all of that.

“Fired up! Ready to go!” an early speaker shouted as he prepared the crowd for Clinton. He received only a smattering of polite claps, despite several attempts to get the crowd excited.