If you wonder how it is that somewhat more than 40 percent of American voters can be supporting Donald Trump for president, according to recent polls, here’s another piece of the polling to mystify you. Greg Sargent flags a trend beyond the head-to-head numbers:
The new WaPo poll finds, for instance, that Americans say by 59-39 that Clinton is “qualified to serve as president,” but they also say by 60-37 that Trump is “not qualified to serve as president.” [...]
Meanwhile, the new CNN poll finds that Americans say by 64-36 that Clinton “has the right experience to be president.” But they say by 67-32 that Trump does not have “the right experience to be president.”
In that Washington Post poll, 43 percent said they were supporting Trump for president. In the CNN poll, 42 percent supported him. Which means that there are a noticeable number of people who support Trump while believing that he’s either not qualified or doesn’t have the right experience to be president.
That’s a special kind of partisanship for you.