A new opinion poll showing that Hillary Clinton has a six-point lead over Donald Trump was, unsurprisingly, headline news in the United States.
The authoritative NBC/WSJ poll put Clinton on 43% with Trump on 37%. But the most noticeable feature of the survey was that both candidates were viewed in negative terms by the majority of respondents.
Clinton’s positive rating, 37%, compared to a 52% negative rating. Trump eclisped her on that, however, with a 28% positive about him with 61% were negative.
The poll threw up some other amusing data too. For example, Americans view the news media more favourably than they do Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.
As media commentator Joe Pompeo pointed out, if that sounds like good news for the media, the bad news is that people who took part in the poll viewed media outlets less favourably than they did Trump, his wife, Melania, and a string of others, including Bill Clinton. Media got a 40-point negative rating (to Putin’s -60 points).
Oh, and note this irony: after years of negative ratings, Barack Obama emerged with a very favourable approval rating, up to 52% compared to the 45% who disapproved of him. The lame duck has plenty to squawk about.
It is also very helpful to Hillary because he continues to make passionate speeches on her behalf and appear alongside her at campaign events.
