Weak, Arrogant, Liar: The Top 20 Words Voters Use to Describe Trump, Bush and Clinton
Policy + Politics

Weak, Arrogant, Liar: The Top 20 Words Voters Use to Describe Trump, Bush and Clinton

© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

The Internet is having some fun with a new poll that explores what people are thinking about the leading presidential candidates. The Quinnipiac survey of 1,562 registered voters asked respondents to play a game of free association with the names of the candidates, and the results are fairly harsh, though in some ways not terribly surprising.

Each respondent was asked the following question: “What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of [candidate]?” The question was asked about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Jeb Bush.

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For the leading candidates from each party, the most popular words are quite critical. Hillary Clinton is a “liar” and Donald Trump is “arrogant.” Clinton is also “dishonest” and “untrustworthy,” while Trump is a “blowhard” and an “idiot.” No doubt many voters will agree with those assessments, but it is remarkable just how cynical the sentiment is. It looks like negative advertising works.

The results for Jeb Bush are a little bit harder to interpret. The most popular word for Bush is “Bush.” The second most popular word helps clarify the first: “family.” It seems that voters think of the whole Bush family when they think of Jeb, which could be good news or bad news, depending on how voters are feeling about all those Bushes right about now. The third most popular word is undoubtedly positive: “honesty.” Seems that people believe he is telling the truth. But the next word is negative: “weak.” He may be honest, but he lacks strength.

Clinton Trump Bush
liar (178) arrogant (58) Bush (136)
dishonest (123) blowhard (38) family (70)
untrustworthy (93) idiot (35) honest (53)
experience (82) businessman (34) weak (45)
strong (59) clown (34) brother (41)
Bill (56) honest (30) dynasty (40)
woman (47) ego (29) experience (35)
smart (31) money (29) George (28)
crook (21) outspoken (28) Florida (25)
untruthful (19) crazy (26) politician (24)
criminal (18) rich (26) republican (24)
deceitful (18) showman (23) moderate (21)
Democrat (16) strong (20) governor (20)
intelligent (15) asshole (18) establishment (16)
email (14) joke (16) conservative (14)
politician (13) loud (16) father (14)
Benghazi (12) leader (15) legacy (13)
corrupt (12) pompous (15) nice (13)
crooked (11) bombastic (13) trustworthy (13)
capable (10) egomaniac (13) untrustworthy (12)
Quinnipiac University Poll August 20-25

What do you think? Take our poll below.

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