I guess it is best to leave it to campaign professionals to devise campaign strategy. The hand wringing and concern voicing was really thick when Hillary made her “Deplorables” comment, even here on this site. It was called an “unforced error” by many armchair strategists, even though it was clear from the situation that the line was written into the speech by Hillary’s writers, wasn’t an off the cuff remark by Hillary. Well, we now have evidence that the country on the whole agrees.
AP story:
AP-GfK poll: 'Deplorables' comment sticks to him, not her
It was supposed to be her "47 percent" moment.
When Hillary Clinton said that half of Donald Trump's supporters belonged in a "basket of deplorables," Republicans thought they just might have found her campaign-crushing-blunder.
The gaffe, they hoped, was a way to cement an image as an out-of-touch snob, just as Democrats did four years ago to Mitt Romney after he said "47 percent" of voters backed President Barack Obama because they were "dependent on government."
As it turns out, far from being a gaffe the comment shook up the race, as was likely intended, with people taking a closer look at Trump, his supporters, his campaign team, and not liking what they see.
But a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that Clinton's stumble didn't have quite the impact that Trump and his supporters wanted. Instead, it's Trump who's viewed as most disconnected and disrespectful.
Sixty percent of registered voters say he does not respect "ordinary Americans," according to the poll. That's far more than the 48 percent who say the same about Clinton.
“Respect ordinary Americans” is one thing, but what comes next is what makes Trump truly deplorable in the eyes of the average American:
Nearly three in four do not view him as even somewhat civil or compassionate. Half say he's at least somewhat racist. Those numbers are largely unchanged from the last time the AP-GfK survey was conducted in July.
Greg Sargent took note:
xNew AP poll finds Trump complaints about "deplorables" are missing the mark:https://t.co/6dARCXGGWFpic.twitter.com/KjS6VBfSxG
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) September 22, 2016 This is deadly when you are trying to reach 50%: More than half of Americans say that Donald Trump is racist, 60% of Americans say that Trump does not respect ordinary Americans, and almost 75% of Americans don’t view Trump as at least somewhat civil and compassionate.The base Hillary needs to turn out for her does, in addition to finding Trump deplorable, also agrees with Hillary painting a good chunk of Trump supporters with that description:
Deplorable? Trump more so than Clinton, AP-GfK poll finds
But Clinton's comments resonate with the voters her campaign must turn out to the polls in large numbers on Election Day. Fifty-four percent of Democratic voters think that Trump's backers are generally worse people than the average American.
About half of black and Hispanic voters, and more than 4 in 10 voters under 30 years old, agree.
"He's a bully and he's just made it acceptable," said Patricia Barraclough, 69, a Clinton supporter in Jonesborough, Tennessee. "Since he started running, civility has just gone down the tubes. The name-calling. The bullying. All of a sudden it's like it's OK to act on it."
As it turns out the “Basket of Deplorables” comment has resonated positively for Hillary, was not a gaffe at all. It helped some of those lulled into a comfy false equivalency snooze via the likes of Wolf Blitzer to wake the hell up. And that’s a good thing.