Counting down the days

The big league speechifying is over for now. The confetti swept from the floor of the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. There are 104 days to the election and the nation is facing the prospect of being governed by one or another of the most disliked candidates ever nominated by their respective parties.

Donald Trump continues to enjoy his post-convention poll “bump,” and presumably Hillary Clinton will get a similar moment to bask in the reflected glow of the convention and the warm embrace of President Obama. The continuing disgruntlement of Bernie Sanders supporters is still a factor to be reckoned with in much the same way Trump is reckoning with the disaffection of actual Republicans, many of whom still sit on the sidelines.

And somewhere out there are some 11 percent of the voting public who remain “undecided.”

As pollster Frank Luntz described them in a recent Time magazine column, “They are a sea of tranquility amidst the raging storm of partisan politics. They’re proud of their independence from either candidate, and see themselves as above the political fray. They deeply dislike Donald Trump, and they deeply dislike Hillary Clinton.”

Some of them simply don’t know and don’t care about the race.

It’s the other kind, however, who will decide the election, Luntz said, and they care less about policy and ideology but they are looking for a “unifier.”

It’s hardly coincidence that the Democrats’ major theme throughout the convention has been “Stronger Together” — a theme Obama (he of the suddenly soaring favorability ratings) returned to repeatedly in his Wednesday embrace of Clinton.

Too many voters have grown not just angry, but rather cynical about the political process — especially those “undecideds.” Engendering trust has never been Clinton’s strong suit, but that’s one thing she has in common with her Republican rival.

So let the long, hot summer — and fall — begin.