Bad news, Hillary fans. All 3 of you.
Hillary is cracking all kinds of new glass floors.
Right before the election, the share of people who viewed Hillary Clinton unfavorably was 10 points larger than those with a favorable view of her, according to the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll — a bigger gap than any other recent losing presidential candidate. Our latest poll is a reminder of just how unusual a figure Mrs. Clinton is in terms of her unpopularity.
Historical WSJ/NBC polling shows that recent losing presidential candidates — Mitt Romney, John McCain, John Kerry and Al Gore — experienced post-election declines in positive sentiment. But Mrs. Clinton’s dropoff is a bit steeper–her positive rating is at a new low of 27%, compared with 52% who have a negative opinion. That spread of 25 percentage points is greater than President Trump’s, who is under water by 18 points.
Hillary's post-election behavior hasn't helped. Bernie fans on the far left already hated her. The sore loser tour got red state Dems to hate her too. Her fan base now solely consists of fans of Madam Secretary and Planned Parenthood executives.
But it's also the polarized poll singularity at work.
In a very polarized bare knuckle political culture, it becomes hard for any widely known political figure to maintain a positive rating for very long. When the media talks about Trump's poll ratings, it's the flip side of Hillary's poll ratings. That was the way it was before the election. It's just as true now.
The old political culture depended on a broader willingness of Dems and Pubs to give candidates from the opposing party a fair shake. We're past that Rubicon now. Dems and Pubs will consolidate around their candidates. Independents will loosely split, with a possible Pub advantage, Candidates with the greatest appeal to rally their base win.
That makes the total overall numbers that pollsters specialize in misleading. Candidates will be underwater. So will elected officials. At least once the fight is underway. But that won't matter.