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Keller @ Large: 3 Reasons Hillary Clinton Is Losing Support Among Women

BOSTON (CBS) - She's the Democratic Party's front-runner by a wide margin. But is there trouble for Hillary Clinton?

New numbers expose a surprising weakness in her presidential run.

A candidate who is considered to have the best shot ever at becoming our first female president is shedding support from, believe it or not, women, at a pace that might be just an eye-popping aberration or a sign of big problems ahead.

The latest national poll shows Clinton - a white, college-educated woman from the suburbs - is losing ground fast among white, college-educated and suburban women.

How can this be?

There are three major reasons.

Reason #3: The Clinton legacy isn't helping. Asked in that poll if the next president should take an approach similar to or different from President Clinton's, half said he or she should be different, with only 36 percent seeing Bill as a role model.

Reason #2: The Obama legacy isn't helping, either.

A whopping 67 percent told pollsters they want a break from the Obama approach. And a majority disapproves of his handling of foreign policy, a reason for some to sour on his former Secretary of State.

And reason #1: To quote the 1992 Clinton campaign: "It's the economy stupid!"

The economy is issue one for voters, and for now they give the Republicans an edge in dealing with it. As the symbol of her party's establishment, Hillary Clinton faces an uphill battle to sell herself as an agent of positive economic change.

Luckily for Secretary Clinton, there is plenty of time for her to turn this trend around.

At this point in her 2008 primary battle she led Barack Obama by a two-to-one margin, so things can and do change.

Then again, maybe that's not the memory she'd prefer to evoke.

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