"Voters Say Clinton Is Dishonest and Trump Is Stupid - Why Are They Leading the Race?"

[Attorney in Texas]

link; excerpt:

Quick. What’s the first thing that springs to mind when you think of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?

According to a new national survey by Gallup of Americans in both parties, the most common responses are “Dishonest” or “liar” or “don’t trust her” or even “belongs in jail.” Ouch.

Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, fairs much better on the honesty and integrity front. ... The 2016 presidential campaign may go down as one of the most negative of modern times, with the Democratic frontrunner Clinton running under a black cloud of public suspicion and disdain for her mishandling of sensitive emails during her four years at the State Department and her response to the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound, while the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has blistered Democratic and Republican candidates alike with charges of lying, incompetence, low energy and even criminality.

Clinton has consistently drawn high negative ratings for her character and honesty since she formally launched her campaign for president last spring. Trump has engendered far more pessimism and negativity among voters across political and ideological lines, even as he continues to rack up impressive showings in the early primaries and caucuses... Americans’ list of negatives about Trump largely focused on the combative billionaire’s obnoxious personality – including generalized feelings that he is arrogant, offensive and rude, ill-tempered, hot-headed and “stupid and idiotic.”... In the case of Clinton, the former first lady and New York senator drew negative ratings from six in ten voters surveyed, with her highest-ever unfavorable rating of 59 percent while just 38 percent were favorable. (Among Democrats alone, not surprisingly, she does much better, with 72 percent favorable an only 26 percent unfavorable. But her negative ratings shoot up significantly among independents, with 65 percent of them saying they are highly critical of her candidacy.)... She has been dogged throughout the campaign by criticisms of her close ties to Wall Street, the tens of millions of dollars that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton have accepted in speaking fees from special interest groups and universities, and her mishandling of secret documents on her personal email server during her four years as secretary of state.

Sanders, meanwhile, is considered more honest and caring about the needs of average Americans, and a “fresh face” in the national political arena despite his decades of service in the House and Senate.

[haikugal]

1. Manufactured consent?

Thanks for this OP! K&R!!

[GoneFishin]

10. Yep. That's a perfect term.

[liberal N proud]

2. Love it when they leave out a few critical words, like "some"

Some voters, not all voters. And some voters distrust Bernie as well.

[Ferd Berfel]

14. yea some......

[Nanjeanne]

3. Um Because the Media is obsessed with Trump - and they want Hill to be Inevitable. nt

[99th_Monkey]

12. +10

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Trump is *not* "stupid".

He's leading the race because he's smart.

Clinton? Well........

[GreatGazoo]

19. But the point remains: the media is framing both of them in a certain way

Here is what Trump looks like through a different set of filters (and YES he did say all of these things):

[elleng]

5. 'If we are going to nominate someone who 50% of our people can't stand,

we are going to lose.'

Marco Rubio

Goes for BOTH parties.

[BernieforPres2016]

11. Seems unlikely both parties will lose

Hillary versus Trump would be a competition to see who can drive the other person's negatives up the highest. All out nuclear war.

[kgnu_fan]

6. Money blinds people...

[GoneFishin]

7. For Clinton it is brand recognition. People who aren't engaged can at least say they know who she

is, but people who are not politically engaged have not seen Bernie's name in the news for 25 years to have it burned into their brains. People who don't have the time or energy to delve deeply into politics are voting for the devil they know.

Which is why the media had a black out on Bernie for as long as they could, and why DWS restricted the debates. They knew Hillary would get a free ride for a while based on name recognition alone.

[Octafish]

8. Free Publicity.

Plus half if not most of the talking heads are paid stooges for one or the other.

https://theintercept.com/2016/02/25/tv-pundits-praise-hillary-clinton-on-air-fail-to-disclose-financial-ties-to-her-campaign/

[JI7]

9. because many are trump and Clinton supporters saying that about the other

[nichomachus]

13. Because we have a "lesser of two evils" political process thanks to Corporate America

We're stuck with deciding who is the least worst candidate. Anyone who comes along that tries to remedy that -- Bernie, for example, will be savaged by the entrenched powers and the corporatist media.

[Ferd Berfel]

15. BIngo!

and I'm sick of it. I won't be stampeded again.

The lesser of two evils, is still evil.

Revolutions Cost. Even 'bloodless' political Revolutions have a price.

This one will cost in pain and suffering if Bernie is not the Nom because if Clinton is the Nom, she will loose and the Fourth Reich will run rampant - for a while. And that may be what it takes to finally get enough people off of their asses.
Maybe we haven't reached critical mass yet. Maybe we have to hit bottom first

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Oh we have to accept that many democrats buy into centrism.

They are scared of rocking the boat. Clinton is the safe choice. We will keep plowing forward as the clean up party for the mess republicans make. No we can't have medicare for everyone. No we can't extend public education to k-16. No we can't. No we can't. See? It's easy to just keep on doing nothing. Don't rock the boat, don't tip the boat over.

[Avalux]

17. Manipulation courtesy of the media.

The propaganda narrative was decided upon long before the primary even started. Yes, we get to vote, but Americans are told who to vote for and unfortunately we do as we're told. Our 'news' is just one big advertisement for the pre-ordained candidates.

When SC voters say they voted for Hillary because "she looks presidential" and "everyone knows her name" - there you go.

[Vote2016]

18. bingo