screengrab from https://twitter.com/realdanjordan/status/1080538345749458944

AOC is channeling those timeless words spoken by Hillary Clinton as she defended her philandering husband against allegations he had had an affair with Monica Lewinsky. Hillary said there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that was out to get them.

The Democratic star blames a “directed and concerted far-right propaganda machine with a whole cable news channel, and a dark-money internet operation propped up by the Mercers et al dedicated to maligning me and stoking national division.”

It’s almost as though there is a directed + concerted far-right propaganda machine with a whole cable news channel, and a dark-money internet operation propped up by the Mercers et al dedicated to maligning me & stoking nat’l division, reported on by @JaneMayerNYer or something https://t.co/HChBp04c8W

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 29, 2019

She was reacting to a Quinnipiac Poll which resulted in a negative favorability rating. 23 percent of voters held a favorable opinion of her and 36 had an unfavorable opinion, while 38 percent said they don’t know enough about her to form an opinion.

In a recent article, Vox’ Zack Beauchamp wrote that the “conservative media’s war on AOC is hammering her poll numbers. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s national poll numbers are pretty bad — and conservative media attacks appear to be a key reason why.

Beauchamp notes that this isn’t a “one-off” thing. He points to three recent polls that show similar results.

The wildly different results between Democrats and Republicans may actually prove AOC and Beauchamp are right. Among Democrats, 47 percent of voters view AOC favorably while only 7 percent view her unfavorably. Among Republicans, 2 percent hold a favorable opinion while 74 percent view her unfavorably.

A look the number of Democrats who haven’t heard enough about her to form an opinion, 44 percent, vs. 23 percent of Republicans indicates that “AOC is simply better known among Republicans than Democrats, and this is driving her unfavorables up.”

This means that more Republicans than Democrats are familiar with AOC. And Beauchamp attributes this to the “disproportionate attention to her in conservative media.”

I would go along with that assessment. The conservative media has focused on her since long before she took office in January. Her ideas have been so inflammatory and due to her inexperience, she makes gaffe after gaffe and the conservative media gleefully reports each one.

We are unable to comprehend how quickly this freshman congresswoman, who is not particularly bright, has achieved celebrity status so rapidly. Her radical ideas both infuriate and threaten us. And we have become nearly obsessed with her.

At last night’s rally in Detroit, the audience erupted in an enthusiastic chant of “AOC sucks.” That’s a strong indication that she occupies a pretty large space in our heads.

The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump analyzed Fox News segments between January 1 and February 15 of this year, comparing the number of segments mentioning AOC to those focusing on at least one of the Democratic 2020 presidential candidates. It turns out she got more coverage on Fox than any candidate save one, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is also a right-wing boogeyman. Ocasio-Cortez got significantly more Fox News coverage than fellow democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders.

While speaking with the New Yorker’s David Redneck, AOC said, “I’ve got a full-time job in Congress and then I moonlight as America’s greatest villain, or as the new hope. And it’s pretty tiring. This ravenous hysteria — it’s really getting to a level that is kind of out of control.”

I have to agree.