Keller @ Large: Voters Likely Not Impressed By Candidates

BOSTON (CBS) - When you cover politics for a living as I have for the past thirty years, one of the biggest problems you face is how to keep things in perspective.

People involved with politics closely tend to be interested in campaigns and passionate about them; it's easy to forget that most of the public is not.

Make that the vast majority of those who've even bothered to register to vote.

According to the Pew Research Center, despite all the hype and all the record debate ratings, less than 18 percent of eligible Republican voters have cast ballots. That is the highest turnout in the last 35 years.

For the Democrats, less than 12 percent have showed up. Believe it or not, that's a healthy showing.

So let's put things in perspective.

A minority of the tiny fraction of Republicans who have voted have supported Donald Trump. An even more modest minority of the sliver of Democrats who've turned out have voted for Bernie Sanders.

Reality check – for all the hype about voter anger in both parties and the big crowds the two third-rail surfers of the moment have drawn, Trump and Sanders have yet to prove they are anything more than fringe candidates.

For that matter, Hillary Clinton has yet to come close to proving she can unite a broad coalition behind her.

And you wonder – since the polls rarely bother to ask as they obsess over likely primary voters, what must the 80-plus percent of voters who are watching passively from the sidelines be making of what they're seeing?

I suspect they're unimpressed by all the lying, pandering, and irresponsible rhetoric.

And that means whoever wins these nominations has a lot of work ahead to restore even a little credibility by November.

Listen to Jon's commentary: