"No candidate in modern presidential history who trailed by this much in June has come back to win

[Doctor Jack]

...with the exception of 1988."

Donald Trump said last week he hasn’t really started campaigning in the general election. It shows in his poll numbers.
After weeks of blistering news coverage, the latest round of national and battleground-state polling underscores the hole in which Trump now finds himself: trailing Hillary Clinton by a significant margin with fewer than 100 days remaining until early voting begins in the key swing states of Ohio and Iowa.

Two new, major national polls released Sunday morning — surveys from ABC News/Washington Post and NBC News/Wall Street Journal — differ to some degree, but both are consistent with the broader trend: Clinton holds a reliable lead over Trump, an advantage that occasionally swells to double digits.

Trump now trails Clinton by 6.3 points in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, and by 6.6 points in the HuffPost Pollster model. In the key states in the Electoral College, POLITICO’s Battleground States polling average shows Clinton ahead by 4.3 points. And perhaps even more important, Trump is lagging behind on a number of other key indicators, including candidate favorability.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trumps-numbers-not-a-pretty-picture-224684

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. It's bound to get worse.

The press is beginning to wise up.

[CincyDem]

2. I stand by my hypothesis that he's a straw man candidate until Cleveland.

I know, I'm nuts but I really believe this is the republican's response to the 2012 47% and "etch-a-sketch" issues they faced with Mitt. The new strategy is "f*ck the primaries" and just pick someone at the convention. Sure they risk the possibility of alienating all of Trumpster's supporters but their gamble is that they're not going to flip and vote for HRC.


I think it backfires and HRC pulls off a 40+ state win but I don't think it'll be against Trump. by November he'll be back to doing birth certificate investigations.

[cliffordu]

5. I agree with everything but your last paragraph.

I think ANYONE who even looks remotely human they prop up will cause a flood of the R base alienated by drumph to stampede the polls.....particularly if that cardboard cutout cannot be vetted by the press....

[CincyDem]

9. Intertesting point. Hadn't thought of the "relieved establishment" effect. Thanks. n/t

[Orsino]

14. I would say any such surge would be offset by the outraged Trump fans' boycotts/riots.

But I agree that Trump is a fake candidate. Even if he's honestly trying to win, he in incapable of organizing such an effort.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. I tend to agree. Republican establishement and power brokers may not be...

our kind of people, they are not stupid and not insane enough to allow Trump's tiny hands on real power.

The clever bastards are up to something, and it could be popping someone like Romney in there to elicit a huge gasp of relief and mad rush to the polls.

Romney, in case nobody noticed, has already run and been vetted reasonably well. Our Hillary haters would now have somewhere to go,
too.

It would be bad news for Hillary, but at least Romney doesn't scare the bejesus out of me if he should win.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. If they try to steal the nomination from him there will be fist fights on the Convention floor.

How could the Republicans survive those optics?

I guess there is a small chance he could decide he is going to lose, this is no longer fun, and quitting is preferable to a humiliating defeat.

[CincyDem]

11. Agreed. And I still think it's the most likely route.

I'm less concerned with what happens on the convention floor since, in spite of Republican's rabid and irrational objection to any type of gun control, they control it in their own convention. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the hypocrisy.

I'm more concerned with the streets of Cleveland and beyond. If (When) he doesn't get the nomination, I think we see a frenzy of home grown "real Americans" taking to the streets to Make America Great (White) Again.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. I am still upset they took down LeBron's banner.

[CincyDem]

13. WTF - Time to stop painting and start wallpapering !

Shows you what Sherwin-Williams is really made of. When the going gets tough, they're all about "me-me-me". What better year to have LeBron up there.

With Trump going into the convention 13 points down, who better to have watching over your than the guy who just pulled it our from a 1-3 gap. None of these people understand optics. lol

[writes3000]

3. That's not entirely true. Bill Clinton was behind by more (to Perot and Bush) in June of 1992.

Admittedly, that was a strange year.

[Doctor Jack]

4. It was pretty close by late June

But had pulled ahead by the 2nd week of July.

[writes3000]

6. I stand corrected.

[Scurrilous]

8. K & R