The polls offer an argument for Webb

As we head toward an American election year, all eyes are drawn to the color purple. The poll numbers that count -- that really, really count -- concern the battleground states. And that's why the most recent Quinnipiac poll offers unsettling news for fans of Hillary Clinton:

Hillary Clinton trails three top Republican presidential candidates in head-to-head matchups in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, a new survey shows.

The latest Quinnipiac University swing state polling released Wednesday shows the Democratic frontrunner trailing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in each of those states.

Webb has proven that he can win over in Virginians, and I think that he could be the kind of candidate likely to appeal to Coloradans.

In Colorado, only 34% of voters said they see Clinton as honest and trustworthy while 62% said they don't. In Iowa, the numbers were 33% to 59% -- a drop from 45% to 47% in April. And in Virginia, Clinton did best, at 39% saying they trust her to 55% saying they don't.

In large part, these numbers reflect Republican smear tactics. The poll respondents are not concerned about the things that concern me, such as Hillary's Syria policy. Instead, most of the people who consider her untrustworthy have been bamboozled by Republican propaganda about Benghazi and similar non-issues.

I could accept Hillary's sinking numbers more easily if the dive occurred for what I consider the right reasons. One does not like to see the smear merchants succeed. It is infuriating to think that we live in a country in which a Koch puppet like Scott Walker is considered honest while Hillary is not. As for Bush -- well, all I can say is that the words "Jeb Bush" and "honesty" are antonyms: See here and here.

Nevertheless, we are approaching the point at which the presumed Democratic frontrunner may be considered hopelessly damaged.

"Hillary Clinton's numbers on honesty and trust may border on abysmal but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the GOP front runner, is still battling a name recognition handicap," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

"Do Colorado voters trust Hillary? No, they do not. Do they think she cares about their needs? No, they do not," he said. "So the door is open to a GOP candidate voters can believe in."

If not Hillary, then who? Sanders is a good man but an impossible candidate: No-one in his right mind would suggest that a socialist could out-perform Hillary Clinton in the purple states.

Martin O'Malley was the mayor of Baltimore, a city filled with the rotting shells of factories and businesses that shuttered years ago. Give me a camcorder and let me loose on Howard Street, and within an hour I'll have the raw footage for a TV commercial that would annihilate that man's chances. O'Malley also initiated (or, at the very least, permitted) the police practices that have alienated and terrorized Baltimore's black community.

Jim Webb is a populist when it comes to reining in Wall Street and an anti-interventionist when it comes to foreign policy. On those two fronts -- the important fronts, in my opinion -- he represents truly progressive values. Can the same be said of Hillary? True, she has recently espoused some good economic ideas, but she cannot extricate herself from Obama's wretched trade agreements, and she is tied to the TPP deal. On the foreign front, eleven words sum up the Hillary problem: When you lie down with neocons, you wake up with crabs.

Webb's stand on gun control should appeal to conservative voters. So will his record of heroism in combat. I can't think of any issues on which Hillary would have any appeal to male conservatives.

Right now, America does not know Jim Webb. Perhaps we should work to make him known.