There was a general expectation that the Trump-Clinton White House battle was going to be dirty, if not indeed one of the dirtiest in recent US history. What was perhaps not expected was that the sleaze and name-calling was going to turn this into an uninspiring, even shocking campaign that is emerging as proof that something is seriously wrong with US politics. Both candidates are heading toward November 8 with record low popularity ratings. Traditional Republicans are revolted by Donald Trump and devoted Democrats are alarmed by Hillary Clinton. Leaving aside the diehard enthusiasts for each contender who in their enthusiasm put aside whatever judgment they may have, the majority of US voters is appalled at the choice they have been given. Some pundits are predicting that there will be significant "write-ins" on ballot papers or even surprising backing for the two leading third-party candidates the Libertarian former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and Jill Stein of the Green Party. Or maybe there will be a despairing refusal to vote. Clinton is fortunate in that she might garner support even from registered Republicans who are revolted by Trump. The Donald's trajectory has gone from being an easily-dismissed joke to becoming a real contender and then steeply back down again after he exposed himself as a racist, Islamophobic, sexist bigot incapable of controlling his loud mouth. But it looks as if Clinton is going to win the White House not on her own virtues but because of the alarming alternative offered by Trump. If she does move in to the Oval Office next year, the United States will probably do what it did in 2000 after George W. Bush scraped a controversial win in Florida against Al Gore and thus triumphed in the overall election. It will rally around the office of the presidency, rather than the new incumbent. But in 2017, few will have any illusions about the woman who will hold the most powerful office in the world. It is hard to believe that Clinton will enjoy much of a honeymoon period. Her political strength will depend very much of the outcome of the Congressional elections. But from the outset she will have issues such as the Libya debacle, the emails and the controversial Clinton Foundation to dog her. There is, however, one potential silver lining to a President Hillary Clinton, which is that she would take office with such rock-bottom expectations, she could hardly fail to surprise. Her wisest course could be to seek to be transparent and to come clean about the considerable disparities between her public face and the assurances she has given privately to America's establishment, especially the Wall Street financial elite who have funded her campaign so generously. It would require considerable political courage to openly reconcile these differences and insist that she was starting over with a clean sheet. But then if she had already won the White House, it might be thought she had nothing to lose by such a makeover. The danger is that American voters are going to grumble for the next four years, as they become more and more disillusioned with the patent inadequacies of their political system. That rancor will be the greater if Congress continues to be polarized by bitter bipartisan politics that yet again threaten to paralyze the US budget.
