Trump finishes the week on a high.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has pulled nearly even with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the first time since May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken over the course of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week.
The July 18-22 national online poll found that 41 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, while 38 percent supported Trump. Given the poll’s credibility interval of about 4 percentage points, Trump and Clinton should be considered to be about even in the race.
Just before Republicans opened the convention on Monday, Trump had trailed Clinton by nearly 10 percentage points in the poll.
The New York businessman-turned-politician formally accepted the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election during a convention at which the party at times struggled to show unity.
People dismissive of Trump’s chances in November really shouldn’t be. Yes, candidates generally get a bounce in the polls after their conventions but this year, once again, was unique. This convention featured some old-school drama and was constantly getting bad press from both the left media and right-leaning pundits who loath Trump. Add to that the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the candidate himself from the media and one would think that a convention bounce might not happen this year.
The fact that Hillary Clinton is a horrible human being and even worse candidate remains. She’s an imperious shrew who doesn’t connect at all with real Americans, mostly because she can’t stand them.
For all of his flaws, Trump can speak to great swath of the electorate that feels disenfranchised in a very real way, not in the Democrats’ made-up disenfranchisement way. His detractors try to dismiss this as simply an appeal to white voters, but the working class in America is a real melting pot and a lot of them feel that Trump gets them.
One thing is certain: prolonged exposure to the spotlight is never a good thing for Mrs. Clinton.
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