Keller @ Large: NH Voters' Harsh Descriptions Of Clinton, Trump
BOSTON (CBS) - Today is the final day of our WBZ-TV, WBZ NewsRadio, UMass Amherst poll of New Hampshire voters, and there's a bit of irony in there that merits a little discussion.
New Hampshire voters are famous for their aversion to negative campaigning, a stance they once again make clear in our poll.
But these same voters, when asked what one word they would use to describe the two candidates, proceed to unload a string of harsh adjectives that make most of the attack ads seem tame.
For Hillary Clinton, the most popular word was "liar," closely followed by "corrupt." A handful of positive adjectives, such as "qualified" and "experienced," compete for space in the word cloud our pollsters drew up with "dishonest," "untrustworthy," and "criminal."
Donald Trump's word cloud is even more loaded with acid rain. How's this for a string of adjectives: "dangerous, crazy, disgusting, idiot, bully, insane," and a few words not suitable for use here.
Hey New Hampshire voters – don't sugarcoat it, will ya?
A case can be made that none of these descriptions are especially fair, even if some of them have a grain of truth.
And they certainly aren't nice things to say about the next president of the United States.
Then again, it seems we long ago stopped applying even minimal civility to the way we discuss not just political leaders, but pretty much anyone in the public eye.
That delightful mixture of venom, bile, bitterness, vulgarity and rudeness was always there to some extent, I'm sure, but in the Internet age, no one bothers to be embarrassed about it anymore.
Is this right or wrong?
I'll leave that one to you, but of one thing, I'm certain – it isn't very becoming.
Listen to Jon's commentary: