I’m very rapidly losing interest in the presidential race which, given the mass media preoccupation on the same topic, accounts for the irregularity of these postings. For me, it’s really very simple: No matter who wins in the contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I am reminded of an old card, which said, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
The Horse Race
This situation directly implicates the two party system:
Hillary Clinton is intensely disliked by a larger share of Americans than anyone who’s ever received a major party presidential nomination in the past. But [Donald] Trump is even more widely disliked, and since elections are zero-sum, this means a huge advantage for a candidate who seems kind of weak by historical standards.[1]
The margin between the two isn’t small, either.[2] But the question here—and contrary to Gerald Seib—really is, who has more to lose? The people who hate Trump already hate him. The attacks on Clinton have barely begun.
Gerald F. Seib, “Voters Harbor Differing Concerns About Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/voters-harbor-differing-concerns-about-hillary-clinton-and-donald-trump-1462206229
Matthew Yglesias, “Hillary Clinton will be the most-disliked nominee ever — except for Donald Trump,” Vox, May 2, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/5/2/11565194/clinton-trump-unfavorable
Footnotes
- [1]Matthew Yglesias, “Hillary Clinton will be the most-disliked nominee ever — except for Donald Trump,” Vox, May 2, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/5/2/11565194/clinton-trump-unfavorable↩
- [2]Gerald F. Seib, “Voters Harbor Differing Concerns About Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/voters-harbor-differing-concerns-about-hillary-clinton-and-donald-trump-1462206229; Matthew Yglesias, “Hillary Clinton will be the most-disliked nominee ever — except for Donald Trump,” Vox, May 2, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/5/2/11565194/clinton-trump-unfavorable↩