OMG — that’s the only reaction to this, the most repugnant presidential election in modern history.
The question is: What will this Halloween horror show of an election do to potential voters? Will they run screaming from the voting booth?
Already voters are registering strong disapproval.
Fox News just completed a national poll asking whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton would be a good role model for children.
Among the likely voters surveyed, 54 percent said Clinton would be a good role model and 20 percent said Trump would be someone children should model themselves after.
Last week, Jessica Leeds — who claimed Trump groped her on a plane in 1979, according a New York Times story — told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Trump assaulted her for 15 minutes.
“He was grabbing my breasts and trying to turn me towards him, and kissing me. And then after a bit, that is when his hands starting going — I was wearing a skirt, and his hands starting going towards my knee and up my skirt,” Leeds said.
Trump called the charges lies and said he would disprove them.
National analysts are starting to see a sharp decline in support for Trump and it is attributed to the recording of Trump and television host Billy Bush joking about women and Trump saying women allow him to sexually assault them because he is a celebrity.
A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll early last month had Clinton leading Trump by 6 percentage points, but after the tape featuring Trump bragging about grabbing women’s genitals was released, Clinton’s lead jumped to 14 percent over Trump.
There are more women than men voters and it is now more likely that the Trump presidency is an impossibility. Certainly, in the Democratic stronghold of Hawaii, Trump will lose.
But what about other campaigns? What is the collapsing Trump campaign going to do to them?
Colin Moore, director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii, said political research shows that negative campaigns hurt all candidates.
“People vote for hope and stay home for fear,” said Moore.
Saying that Clinton “will easily win,” Moore explained that the two — Clinton and Trump — have the highest unfavorable ratings of any recent presidential candidates.
“I think it is going to be a historically low turnout across the nation,” Moore said.
Low turnout almost always favors the incumbent as opposed to the challenger. Incumbents like Mayor Kirk Caldwell come to the election with a built-in base of supporters, the voters who elected them the last time and also have the ability to garner more media attention because they hold office.
Challengers, such as Caldwell’s opponent Charles Djou, have to raise both money and supporters while out of office.
Hawaii already set a record low primary voter turnout and Moore expects the general election numbers to also be low — so the question is how many local races will change the political landscape.
With Caldwell looking strong, perhaps the only close race could be the Hawaii Kai state Senate race featuring Democratic challenger Stanley Chang against incumbent Republican Sam Slom.
Not the most exciting, but in this presidential election year of revulsion, boring is better than ugly.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.