Hillary Clinton Polls: Barely Above Trump Among The Worst-Rated Presidential Candidates In Seven Decades

Earlier in June, things were looking dismal for Donald Trump, but results from a Gallup Poll released Friday showed that Hillary Clinton polls with Trump among the worst presidential candidates since 1956.

When Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for re-election in 1956, the percentage of the American public that viewed Ike with a favorable ranking numbered 84. Lyndon Johnson comes in second in 1964 with an 81 percent favorable ranking, tying Jimmy Carter in 1976 to round out the top three according to Gallup’s data.

The most recent poll, conducted from June 14-23, the latest in a series that has outlined low favorability among voters for Donald Trump, doesn’t put Hillary in the best of light either.

According to Gallup, while Hillary polled 51 percent favorable, she sits third from the bottom of every candidate since 1956. Only ahead of Barry Goldwater sitting at a 43 percent favorability ranking and Donald Trump who is dead last with 42 percent of American voters polled having a favorable view of the presumptive Republican nominee.

Coincidentally, Hillary’s ranking above Barry Goldwater is noteworthy because of the former’s support of Goldwater’s 1964 run during her time in high school as a Young Republican and “Goldwater Girl.”

No president since Ronald Reagan has held a favorability rating over 70 percent in a Gallup poll. Bill Clinton’s 1992 rating of 65 percent comes closest, while Mitt Romney ranks lowest with 55 during the 2012 race against incumbent Barack Obama.

Both of 2016’s presumptive nominees look to make history. The poll also notes that the lowest favorability rating for a winning candidate was George W. Bush running for re-election in 2004. His Democratic opponent that year, John Kerry, ended his campaign with a favorability rating of 57 percent.

As revealed by Common Dreams, the polling is consistent. A Reuters/Ipso poll from May demonstrated that a significant percentage Americans are choosing to vote against the candidates rather than for them as 47 percent of those polled said they were supporting Donald Trump explicitly to vote against Hillary Clinton. Likewise, 46 percent of Hillary supporters said that they don’t want to support Trump.

Also in May, an NBC/Survey Monkey poll would go on to show that 60 percent of those polled “disliked” or “hate” Hillary Clinton. Trump polled slightly worse at 63 percent in the same category.

Just last Thursday, Public Policy Polling released their recent findings which found that 13 percent of Americans favored the poll’s gag option: A meteor crashing into the planet as opposed to voting for either Trump or Clinton.

What’s the problem? Why are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton polling with such low favorability among American voters? It could be an image problem, reports Gallup.

Data from the same poll conducted in June found that up to half of those polled have a negative image of Hillary while up to two-thirds react negatively to Trump. This comes as those polled we asked open-endedly what comes to mind when they hear the names of the candidates.

Among the most common traits that come to mind among voters when they think of the Democrat, it turns out, are that she is dishonest and unethical, as well as plain old dislike for her with a 27 to 13 percent rating respectively.

As for Trump, while 16 percent say that they simply don’t like him, 12 percent feel that he is a joke or idiot.

There is a slight measure of redemption for Hillary as the third most polled response, at 10 percent, was that she was qualified to be president. As for Donald Trump, it would seem that his comments are not doing him any favors as 10 percent of the reactions among those polled pegged him as being a racist, bigot and guilty of hating women.

[Photo by David Goldman/AP Images]