Trump and Clinton are the most despised candidates in history
No presidential candidate in polling history has been as hated by voters as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are now. But a review of the last eight presidential elections reveals that the most hated candidate in the spring almost always ends up winning in November. This year’s top candidates have smashed all records for voter disdain. Clinton is “strongly disliked” by 37 percent of voters, topping the 32 percent who couldn’t stand George W. Bush in 2004. And the disapproval of Trump has never before been seen in presidential politics, with 53 percent rating him “strongly unfavorable.” The numbers were crunched by FiveThirtyEight, which released a set of charts comparing the “strongly unfavorable” ratings of presidential candidates stretching back to 1984. Blame the huge disapproval numbers on a polarized electorate and the celebrity status of the front-runners. But such negative numbers at this stage do not spell ballot-box doom. Over the last 32 years, all but ...
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