A new poll Thursday shows most voters think Donald Trump is a risky choice for president, and Hillary Clinton is the safer bet – but the Clinton camp is worried Americans might gamble on a political outsider, The New York Times reported.
The CBS/New York Times poll shows 67 percent of voters think Trump is a risky choice compared with 51 percent who see the former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state that way.
But more tellingly, the survey also finds 48 percent of voters think Trump could bring real change to Washington, while only 36 percent see Clinton that way.
"The risky part with Trump is the fact of his rhetoric, how he says things," Patrick Kellegher, a political independent and a retired deputy sheriff from Anaconda, Mont., told The Times.
"But I think he is outside the known government circles," adding: "I think Trump will bring about real change because he’s looking at it through a different scope."
That perception "deeply worries some Clinton campaign advisers, who want the race to hinge on Mr. Trump’s character rather than voters’ desire to upend the status quo," The Times wrote.
Trump advisers also believe the view of the GOP nominee as a gamble has an upside, The Times reported.
"If he can persuade people to see him simply as unpredictable — even cagey in a strategic sense — as well as committed to disrupting the federal government, voters could regard him as worth taking a chance on for four years while looking to his advisers and Congress as a check on his power," The Times wrote.
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