Here is a chart from the latest NBC/SurveyMonkey Poll that shows how depressing this election is for most voters.
In case you were wondering – no, it isn’t at all usual for both candidates to score so low on these attributes. It isn’t usual for even one of the candidates to score so low because the primary process is supposed to theoretically keep out candidates who are so fundamentally unlikable.
Example: in October of 2015, during the heat of a very nasty Presidential race, Obama was viewed as “honest and trustworthy” by 56% of voters, while Romney was viewed as “honest and trustworthy” by 45%. In 2012, both candidates hovered in the 40s or 50s on the “cares about people like me” metric. And on and on it goes. Normally, falling below 40% in a single one of these attributes is fatal to a campaign. Trump is below 25% in all four. Clinton is below 25% in three out of four – and barely gets above 40% in the temperament question.
At the end of the day, most modern Presidential elections are decided by temperament, which is why Clinton will likely win by a margin that is not as close as the polls today suggest. But boy, do American voters hate both these candidates.
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