Hillary Clinton appears to have enjoyed a significant bump in polling in the wake of last week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Since the Republican convention, Hillary had been either tied with or trailing GOP nominee Donald Trump. She now enjoys a substantial lead over the alleged billionaire.
The crosstabs of the CNN poll look particularly disastrous for Trump, who trails in almost every category.
That last figure is astonishing. It suggests that roughly 13% of Americans are supporting Trump, but wouldn’t take pride in having him as president. On the other hand, it’s also bad news for Hillary Clinton, who is one of the most unpopular nominees (apart from Trump) in modern history.
This raises an interesting question: Is Hillary Clinton a better candidate than Russian strongman Vladimir Putin?
At the moment, anyway, Trump appears to be imploding — publicly feuding with the family of a fallen soldier isn’t helping — while Hillary’s trajectory is pointing up. How well would she have to perform in November to best Putin’s most recent electoral victory?
Putin won just 63.6% of the vote in Russia’s presidential election in 2012. (The constitution had to be amended to allow him to run again after serving from 2000 to 2008.) That’s a fairly modest number for a brutal authoritarian who crushes dissent. Most of the world’s most prominent dictators are able to secure at least 95% in their “elections.”
Can Hillary do better? It’s unlikely, due to the fact that many voters do not trust her or have any positive feelings toward her whatsoever. But more people feel the same way about Trump, which is why this is one of the worst elections of all time.
Winning more than 63.6% percent of the voter would be unprecedented in American history. Only four U.S. president have topped 60%, including Lyndon Johnson, who 61.1% of the vote against Barry Goldwater in 1964, the most dominant performance of any presidential candidate thus far.
Hillary might be able to post a tally in the mid-60s (or 70s or 90s) if she decides to “rig” the election, which Donald Trump is already accusing her of doing. “I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” Trump told a crowd in Ohio on Monday. He later told Fox News host Sean Hannity, “I hope the Republicans are watching closely or it’s going to be taken away from us.”