The Hillary factor

A Fox News poll released late Wednesday rendered an odd verdict: Nearly 85 percent of Americans think Donald Trump is “obnoxious.”

I’m not doubting the veracity of that statistic. I actually wouldn’t have blinked if it had been 10 points higher. However, I can’t for the life of me see what relevance it holds. The United States has endured electorally-successful chief executives about whom far worse has quite fairly been said. After eight years of President Obama’s dull-witted arrogance, Trump could be as grating as an Atlantic City prop comic and I’d consider it a step skyward.

Presumptive Democrat White House nominee Hillary Clinton is outrunning Trump the way an NFL wide receiver would outrun an obese filmmaker. Then again, she might be cankle-waddling right next to him. One poll says she’s leading him by 12 points. Another has her up by six. A third poll shows the two of them in a statistical dead heat. Polls of “battleground states” including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania show the old girl holding anywhere from a 21 point lead over Trump to sharing a walker with him. If that doesn’t dent your confidence in the conventional wisdom of polling data, this might: the Rasmussen poll released Thursday shows Trump leading Hillary by four points.

The polls contained a great deal more information about the current public opinions of Trump and Clinton, most of which seemed to negate results from similarly-themed polls conducted by rival organizations. Fox News can ask all the questions about where Trump stands on the “obnoxious” meter — they’d probably rank him lower than I might — but they and their media colleagues seem to be avoiding the personality gap into which Trump has sailed his circus barge… and it is wider than the gulf between Hillary and good taste.

Most respondents may well answer Fox News’ “obnoxious” question in the affirmative; sending pollsters back to their conference rooms with satisfied smirks. But the question ignores the reason a man considered “obnoxious” by more than 8 out of 10 Americans is still competitive. Trump is largely a retort by fed-up Republicans who had grown tired of electing professed conservatives to the House and Senate, only to see them cower like nervous schoolboys in the headmaster’s office whenever Obama walks into the room. But that only explains Trump’s likely nomination; not his general election standing. In order for Trump to even be on the water with Hillary, she must be dragging a real anchor.

In fact, for Trump to be more than an afterthought requires Hillary to be less than a lock. Forget the polls, and forget the smug dismissals of the media. Instead, consider the fact that as loathsome as so many would convince you Trump is, Hillary is clearly only viewed marginally better, and even that discrepancy is mostly default.

The poor old bat spent her entire post-collegiate “career” preparing for one job. She stayed married to a rapist while pretending to be the “women’s candidate.” She laughed at victims of child molestation while promising that the kiddies were the primary focus of her so-called “gun violence” prevention policies. She stood pantsuit-to-jumpsuit with blue collar workers while living like Marie Antoinette on their nickels, not to mention foreign government dimes, and then threatened to destroy their livelihoods. She lied about the Benghazi terrorist attack while face-to-face with the victims’ families and then called Sean Smith’s mother a liar on national TV.

Judging by her ever-changing excuses for her email debacles, she’s either a Luddite or a moron; possibly both. Hillary lied, she cheated, she showed less class and honesty about everything from her disastrous tenure as Secretary of State to her “foundation’s” finances than her husband would at a Nevada brothel. She even claimed she was proud to consider half the country “enemies.”

The media may ask whether people think of Trump as “obnoxious” every day from now until November. They can concentrate almost exclusively on the “Trump factor.” But in doing so, they’re not only providing Trump with a tremendous amount of free publicity — Trump being an obvious believer in the “no publicity is bad publicity” theory — they’re ignoring the fact that the majority of Americans have at least as dim a view of Madame Clinton.

Trump is obnoxious. Hillary is — according to many — as bad or worse.  And while the “Trump factor” makes for catchy soundbites and poll questions, it’s the “Hillary factor” that’s actually keeping the 2016 presidential race so close.

— Ben Crystal

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