The race is tightening for a painfully simple reason

[DonViejo]

by Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias [e-mail] Sep 15, 2016, 12:00pm

Hillary Clinton’s ongoing campaign to paint Donald Trump as unacceptable in the eyes of most Americans is working. It’s just not good enough. That’s the message of the spate of recent polls showing a dramatically tightened race that Trump may even be narrowly winning.

The truth is that Trump is not doing well. Even Trump’s very best recent polls (which, by definition, are outliers that likely overstate his true level of support) show him receiving fewer votes than Republican candidates usually get. A recent CNN poll of Ohio, for example, that gave him a 5-point lead in the crucial swing state also shows him only getting 46 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney and John McCain both did better than that. Clinton’s attacks and Trump’s well-known weaknesses seem to have him losing the support of some GOP loyalists, even in his best polls.

The problem is that Clinton herself is doing worse. Because despite her campaign’s emphasis on Trump’s weirdness and unpopularity, that isn’t the only force shaping this race. It’s profoundly unusual across two other dimensions — the strength of third party candidates and the weakness of the frontrunner — that will probably prevent Clinton from ever opening up a sustained comfortable lead unless she can do something to make herself better-liked.

-snip-

http://www.vox.com/2016/9/15/12919800/clinton-trump-polls-tighter

[Buzz cook]

1. Or it could be the media putting its thumb on the scale. nt

nt

[Blue Idaho]

2. ^^^This^^^ nt.

[Maru Kitteh]

3. BOOM! **BREAKING NEWS! Donald Trump did not mess his pants today and ate something with a fork!***

OOOOoooooooooo AAAAahhhhhhhhh

"Wow! He's really maintaining good discipline! SO presidential! Do you think his great bladder control and ability to use utensils makes Hillary look less honest and trustworthy?"