Is this the best we can do? America despairs as election race hits new low
Harriet Alexander and Ruth Sherlock examine how the presidential race turned into an unpopularity contest
DONALD TRUMP, the US Republican presidential candidate, calls his rival Hillary Clinton “unhinged” and “rotten”; she calls him “dangerous” and a “bully”.
All elections have their bitter moments, but this year’s run for the most powerful office in the world has sunk to unprecedented lows.
As the American presidential election counts down its final 50 days, sober policy discussion has been drowned out by personal insults and base offensives.
The blistering negativity has bruised both candidates, with polls now showing that the two pensioners are the most disliked presidential hopefuls in American history.
A poll released last week had the pair tied in a dead heat, when a third party candidate is taken in to account.
Many Americans are left asking in dismay a phrase now frequently repeated on the 24-hour news channels: “We’re a country of 300 million – and this is the best we can do?”
This time, it’s personal
In his latest attack against his electoral rival, Donald Trump called on Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards to disarm and “see what happens to her”. In a country with a history of assassinations of high profile politicians, presidential candidates are guarded at all times by heavily armed secret service. “I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons,” Mr Trump said at a rally in Miami. “I think they should disarm. Immediately. What do you think. Yes? Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns. Take them. Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, OK. It will be very dangerous.” As Mrs Clinton has been keen to point out, Mr Trump has often treated his election campaign as if it were another of his reality television shows. His own friends admit that he revels in the drama of personal attacks, and likes to make news by sending out insulting tweets “before he gets out of bed”. Mrs Clinton has responded by performing stand up comedy routines mocking her rival. She recently used a tag-line from Mr Trump’s show The Apprentice to attack him on the economy: “We shouldn’t expect better from someone whose most famous words are, ‘You’re fired’.”
Big business ties
Last week, Bill Clinton belatedly celebrated his 70th birthday in New York which saw the great and the good mingling amid stunning views of Manhattan: among them Jon Bon Jovi and Barbra Streisand.
And yet, despite being billed as a party, the event was heavy with politics.
The Clinton Foundation has come under intense scrutiny from allies of Donald Trump, with the charitable organisation portrayed as a way for Mrs Clinton to grant favours to international donors.
The Clintons have said there has never been any evidence of wrongdoing. Yet for many, the lingering suspicion remains.
A Newsweek article last week made even more damning allegations about Mr Trump and his sprawling global business empire. The report described him as “the most conflicted president in American history”, and said that his business interests in India, South Korea, Turkey, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey were of deep concern.
Mr Trump’s links to Russia have also become a political hot potato – with the billionaire businessman praising Vladimir Putin, and he has been shown to have done business with Felix Sater, a man convicted of crimes linked to the Russian mob.
Health stumbles
If Mr Trump wins the election, it will make him the oldest newly elected president in US history – Ronald Reagan was just shy of 70 when he was inaugurated in 1981. If Mrs Clinton wins, it will make her, at 69, the second oldest behind Reagan.
Reports of Mrs Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis and Mr Trump’s high testosterone levels have drowned out almost everything else.
“The good news is, my pneumonia finally got some Republicans interested in women’s health,” joked Mrs Clinton on Friday, a day after returning to the fray from three days of rest. “Looking back I know I should have listened to my doctor’s orders to rest. But I pushed through it – that’s what most women do every day.”
But the fact that she covered up her illness for three days cut deep: her poll ratings sank from 51 per cent of Americans supporting her in August, down to 42 per cent.
The pro-Trump New York Post took to calling her “Illary” and absurd conspiracy theories circulated – including that she has Parkinson’s or even uses a body double because she cannot cope with the pace of campaigning.
Mr Trump’s week was scarcely less ridiculous. He seized the opportunity to glorify his own vital statistics – appearing, with typical Trump showmanship, on a television chat show hosted by Dr Mehmet Oz to boast about his health.
He admitted he was overweight – borderline obese, according to his BMI – and that he did not eat healthily or exercise. But, he said, he had a wonderful golf swing.
Values abandoned
Ronald Reagan often called America the “shining city on the hill”, a beacon of hope for the free world. But in this election, this view of the United States has become lost in the fog.
Donald Trump has rejected the notion that America should play any role as the world’s moral arbiter.
And he has rebuffed free-market inspired trade deals, in favour of an insular and protectionist view.
This repudiation of traditional Republican pillars has caused the Bush family to sit this election out. And senior Republicans including John McCain and House leader Paul Ryan are struggling to bring themselves to support their candidate.
Values issues have affected Democrats too. Mrs Clinton is increasingly perceived as adapting her values and policy beliefs according to what is politically expedient.
Her allies bleat that they always knew it would be a tough race.
“I confess I’ll never be the showman my opponent is,” admitted Mrs Clinton. “But that’s alright with me.”
A fortnight ago she made an unusual miscalculation, referring to Mr Trump’s supporters as “deplorables.”
On Friday Mr Trump unveiled his new logo – using imagery from musical Les Miserables, he showed off a banner: “Les Deplorables.”
Americans are left feeling that word could sum up both of them.