For months we had all this consternation about the cause of Donald Trump. Some conservatives claim that it's Obama's fault, he caused Republican voters to fall in love with Trump.
More like their racism did and the cynical manipulation of Obama hatred by the GOP.
But the media is being way too modest. They have had a real hand in this. They have consistently in the rush to declare that 'both sides do it' given the GOP a pass. Like in 2000, they gave us the false equivalence of Bush's lies about his tax plan and Gore allegedly saying he invented the Internet.
Indeed they were much more interested in the latter than the former.
During the GOP primary many Beltway pundits worried about normalizing Trump. But now that he's the GOP nominee they are doing just that. You don''t hear them worrying about his unfitness for office now.
"The presumption here is that a great disaffected middle despairs at the thought of a binary choice between Clinton and Trump, and that the former is as much a source of the despair as the latter. In reality, and for the most part, this dread consumes only one party. Even absent her ongoing primary campaign against Bernie Sanders, it’s true that Clinton would have unusually high unfavorables for a major party nominee, but nearly all of it would be attributable to a 25 year build up of Republican antipathy. At both the elite and rank and file level, Democrats are overwhelmingly content with the thought of a Clinton presidency, and will become more so as the Democratic primary winds down. In the other party, the story’s much different. Rank and file Republicans may be coming home to their nominee, but nearly the entire GOP elite, including the segment of the elite making peace with Trump, is aghast at his nomination."
https://newrepublic.com/article/133655/republicans-cannot-give-nevertrump
I will say a few things regarding Hillary's high unfavorable rating.
It's not static. It's true she's been hit for 25 years, but it's also true that she's had lots of ebbs and flows in her popularity over those 25 years.
She was unpopular in Bill's first term, then became popular after she became a victim of him and Monica Lewinsky.
As a NY Senator her numbers were favorable. In 2008, even in an acrimonious primary with then candidate Obama, her numbers never went below 48% favorability.
As Obama's Secretary of State, her numbers were about 2 to 1 favorable.
Her current low numbers are the result of her becoming a partisan figure again in a very partisan era-where you always start with a third of voters who will hate you no matter what you do.
Hopefully at least your own partisans like you which should get you about a third of the country on your side. Then there are the independents. They are mostly fair weather friends.
When your press is bad they are the first to leave you. When your press gets better, then they become your friend again.
Hillary at present actually has some very good numbers among Democrats as Beutler points out. Her problem is with the indies. But again, remember, approval ratings are not static.
Once she becomes the presumed nominee and Democrats unify, and all these Democratic surrogates take it on the road, I wouldn't be shocked to see some indies start to see her in a more positive light again.
Regarding Trump, the real problem is that now he's the Republican nominee-and not a joke candidate who can never win the GOP nomination-many pundits are going to treat him as just another candidate.
Hillary was right to warn yesterday against allowing Donald Trump to be normalized.
More like their racism did and the cynical manipulation of Obama hatred by the GOP.
But the media is being way too modest. They have had a real hand in this. They have consistently in the rush to declare that 'both sides do it' given the GOP a pass. Like in 2000, they gave us the false equivalence of Bush's lies about his tax plan and Gore allegedly saying he invented the Internet.
Indeed they were much more interested in the latter than the former.
During the GOP primary many Beltway pundits worried about normalizing Trump. But now that he's the GOP nominee they are doing just that. You don''t hear them worrying about his unfitness for office now.
"The presumption here is that a great disaffected middle despairs at the thought of a binary choice between Clinton and Trump, and that the former is as much a source of the despair as the latter. In reality, and for the most part, this dread consumes only one party. Even absent her ongoing primary campaign against Bernie Sanders, it’s true that Clinton would have unusually high unfavorables for a major party nominee, but nearly all of it would be attributable to a 25 year build up of Republican antipathy. At both the elite and rank and file level, Democrats are overwhelmingly content with the thought of a Clinton presidency, and will become more so as the Democratic primary winds down. In the other party, the story’s much different. Rank and file Republicans may be coming home to their nominee, but nearly the entire GOP elite, including the segment of the elite making peace with Trump, is aghast at his nomination."
https://newrepublic.com/article/133655/republicans-cannot-give-nevertrump
I will say a few things regarding Hillary's high unfavorable rating.
It's not static. It's true she's been hit for 25 years, but it's also true that she's had lots of ebbs and flows in her popularity over those 25 years.
She was unpopular in Bill's first term, then became popular after she became a victim of him and Monica Lewinsky.
As a NY Senator her numbers were favorable. In 2008, even in an acrimonious primary with then candidate Obama, her numbers never went below 48% favorability.
As Obama's Secretary of State, her numbers were about 2 to 1 favorable.
Her current low numbers are the result of her becoming a partisan figure again in a very partisan era-where you always start with a third of voters who will hate you no matter what you do.
Hopefully at least your own partisans like you which should get you about a third of the country on your side. Then there are the independents. They are mostly fair weather friends.
When your press is bad they are the first to leave you. When your press gets better, then they become your friend again.
Hillary at present actually has some very good numbers among Democrats as Beutler points out. Her problem is with the indies. But again, remember, approval ratings are not static.
Once she becomes the presumed nominee and Democrats unify, and all these Democratic surrogates take it on the road, I wouldn't be shocked to see some indies start to see her in a more positive light again.
Regarding Trump, the real problem is that now he's the Republican nominee-and not a joke candidate who can never win the GOP nomination-many pundits are going to treat him as just another candidate.
Hillary was right to warn yesterday against allowing Donald Trump to be normalized.
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