THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY...WELL, THE UGLY – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  Do you recall any election in which both candidates were so disliked?  I mean, we've had characters like Dick Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill ("I did not have sex...") Clinton, and they weren't as disliked. 

Who's running this year?  Bonnie and Clyde.

From the Washington Post: 

Registered voters see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a nearly identical negative light, mirroring a persistently close split in overall vote preference in a new Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll.

Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters have an unfavorable impression of Clinton (59 percent), and an identical percentage see Trump negatively. Nearly half of registered voters, 47 percent, have a "strongly unfavorable" view of Clinton and Trump alike.

The parity in basic popularity undermines a key advantage for Clinton throughout most of a presidential campaign where Trump set records as most unpopular presidential candidate in polling history. Clinton's ratings were consistently negative, but were only rarely as troubled as her opponent.

Vote preferences among likely voters continue to be closely divided in the Post-ABC Tracking Poll, with Clinton at 46 percent and Trump at 45 percent, the same split as the previous wave reported Sunday. In a two-way matchup excluding third-party candidates, voters split 49-47 between Clinton and Trump; the margin was 49-46 percent in the previous daily tracking poll.

COMMENT:  You'd think we could do better.  Next Tuesday we will elect a president who will be instantly despised by most of the American people.  What an accomplishment. 

Of course, if it's Clinton, the media will start a major makeover.  She's wonderful.  She's brilliant.  She's Mother Courage.  She's misunderstood.  If it's Trump, the media will, after being treated for shock, announce that the public was fooled, and that the "flyover people" shouldn't be allowed to vote anyway. 

There is a Chinese curse:  "May you live in interesting times."  The times are getting a little too interesting.

October 31, 2016