The most telling statistics in the 2016 presidential election are those showing how intensely Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are disliked. Opposites in almost every way, they meet on the precipice of public loathing and now seem handcuffed together as they plunge towards the abyss.
“Historically bad image ratings” were reported by Gallup in July: Clinton got a “highly unfavourable” rating from 33 per cent of respondents, Trump from 42 per cent. Two months later, the Washington Post put Clinton’s unfavourable score at 56 per cent— unthinkably low for a candidate in normally, but still better than Trump’s 63 per cent.