By Mark Sumner Thursday Jul 28, 2016 · 6:20 PM CST
Doom. Me. Despair. Me. Terror. Me. Me. Me. And only me. That’s a pretty fair summary of Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention. It was one of the most depressing, least hopeful, most self-aggrandizing and just plain poor speeches ever delivered by a presidential candidate.
And Gallup agrees.
… Trump's speech got the least positive reviews of any speech we have tested after the fact: 35% of Americans interviewed last weekend said it was excellent or good. Of the nine previous speeches we have rated, the top one was Barack Obama's in August 2008, which 58% of Americans rated as excellent or good.
Even that 38% number was padded out by only the most fervent Trump followers. Of those who tuned in only on the final evening to see what Trump had to offer only 19% rated the speech excellent or good.
And while Gallup did report a change in opinion for those who watched the convention, it wasn’t what you would call a bounce.
The self-reported net impact of the GOP convention was also negative. Overall, 51% of Americans say the convention made them less likely to vote for Trump, while 36% said it made them more likely to vote for him. This is the highest "less likely to vote" percentage for a candidate in the 15 times Gallup has asked this question after a convention.
More of a convention flop.
The Gallup numbers match the results of an NBC News poll.
Donald Trump received no significant bounce following the Republican National Convention, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll. Hillary Clinton still leads Trump by a single point: 46 percent to 45 percent. These numbers are unchanged from last week.
And they got similar results on Trump’s speech.
Trump's convention speech, which was received well by Republicans watching the event, did not sit as well with Independents. Just 30 percent of Independents who watched the speech said it was excellent or good, 29 percent said it was "just okay" and a 40 percent plurality said it was poor or terrible.
Overall, the RNC wasn’t just a wasted week, it was a negative in every way. Negative in tone. Negative in impression. Negative in results.
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