Ultimate race to the bottom - US presidential election

WHATEVER one may think of our politicians, they have an extremely long way to sink before they reach anything even remotely approaching the depth to which the US presidential race has descended. 

By any yardstick, the second face-to-face debate involving the disgraced Republican candidate Donald Trump and his embattled Democrat adversary Hillary Clinton has given new meaning to the proverbial ‘race to the bottom’.

The world was gobsmacked by the ferocity and personal animosity of the insults traded across the table, with Mr Trump threatening to put her in jail if elected, to which Ms Clinton replied that he was “not fit” to be president. Indeed, many people on this side of the Atlantic would share her view, though she too is dogged by questions regarding her murky involvement in the Middle East and the deletion of 33,000 emails held on a private server when secretary of state.

But compared to the outrageous carry-on of Donald Trump, who has displayed a volatile and unpredictable temperament throughout the election campaign, Hillary Clinton is in the ha’penny place, notwithstanding the fact that she has serious questions to answer.

Yet, despite losing the support of several senior Republicans amid the clamour for him to quit the race after his reference to groping women emerged , he refuses to go away and is just behind her in the polls. What a shocking world it is.