MORE AMERICANS SAY TRUMP IS NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT

…The final two candidates for November

 

All the polls still say Trump not supported my most American voters.

 

I have a real, personal issue about understanding why the race between Clinton and Trump is so close.

 

My question is that, if you look at all the polls that say the majority of those polled say that they “don’t think Trump is qualified to serve as president”, then why are their numbers still so close…..?

 

Oh, I know there the trustworthy issue with Hillary, especially the way the Republicans have been going after Hillary and her husband for the last three decades with their conspiracy theories.  But the Clinton’s have been looked at that way for years and none of those conspiracy efforts have been found to stick.  (Some Republicans today now say that “with all that noise, they must be guilty about something!”)

 

So, with all that negative attitude regarding Trump’s qualifications, one would think that Hilary should be double digits ahead of Trump.  But she isn’t, and some of the polls are saying that The Donald is closing the gap….?

 

However, let’s look at what the polls have actually been saying.

 

This week, The Post poll found that 62% of Americans say they “don’t think Trump is qualified to serve as president,” while only 36% say he is qualified.

 

They also say by 61% that Clinton has the “better personality and temperament to effectively serve as president.” Previous Post polls have also shown similar findings.

 

And in going just back to July, a CNN poll from July found that 67% said Trump does not have “the right experience to be president,” while 64% said that Clinton does have the right experience.

 

For me personally, in this election, the question of whether Trump is fundamentally qualified has been a much more pressing one than it has in any previous election.

 

When one looks at President Obama, Former president Clinton and even the candidates Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and Al Gore, here’s what the American people have had to say:

 

* In February of 2012, a Pew poll found that American voters said by 48% that Mitt Romney was “well-qualified to be president.”

 

* In late October of 2008, a Pew poll found that 56% of voters said Barack Obama, then a first-term Senator, was “well-qualified to be president.”

 

* In October of 2008, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 55% said Sarah Palin was “not qualified to be president.”

 

* In October of 2008, a Newsweek poll also found that 55% said Palin was “not qualified to step in as president.”

 

* In July of 1992, a Time/CNN poll found that 65% said Dan Quayle was “not qualified to be president if something were to happen to President George H.W. Bush”.

 

* In March of 1992, a Los Angeles Times poll found that 51% said Bill Clinton was “qualified to be president.”

 

* In July of 1992, a Time/CNN poll found that 60% said Al Gore was “qualified to be president if something were to happen to Bill Clinton.”

 

Trump actually fares much worse than even Sarah Palin did on perceptions of the level of qualification for the presidency.

 

The only figure who had worse rankings on this than Trump was poor old Dan Quayle. Trump also scores much worse than did Obama, as a first term Senator, or Bill Clinton, the then former governor of Arkansas. (Yes, I know that this is an imperfect comparison because it involves comparing different pollsters.)

 

But my point is that with so many people agreeing that Trump is not qualified or cannot be seen as a US President, why the hell is he still looking like he could still pull it all out and win?

 

The answer that some GOP strategist are offering is that even with all this proof against Trump, some Republicans or GOP-leaning independent voters who say Trump is not qualified, might also think Clinton is equally unqualified.  Or that she is even more so “unqualified”, and thus they will just vote the GOP party line.  They might just actually feel that keeping Clinton out of the White House is a much larger overriding goal.

 

The reality is that the perceptions are, that large majorities view Clinton as qualified and fit for the job, while comparably large majorities view Trump as unqualified and unfit for it.  But this reality continues to be neglected in the political commentary about how historically disliked both of the two candidates are today.

 

There doesn’t seem to be any precedent for a major party nominee to be seen as unqualified as Trump by such large majorities. But in this election, that may not end up mattering in the end.

 

The reality about this election is that it just seems like that this issue is just another data point in proving how unusual and totally abnormal the Trump/Clinton election really is.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016