Cosmopolitan.com Readers Think Hillary Clinton Has the Attributes Necessary to Be President
As the 2016 presidential contest narrows to two candidates, American voters are faced with a stark choice: Hillary Clinton, a consummate political insider, and Donald Trump, a businessman who has staked his bid for the White House on American voters' desire for a president who is outside the political establishment. A new survey of Cosmopolitan.com readers, conducted in partnership with John Della Volpe, CEO of SocialSphere and director of polling at the Harvard Institute for Politics, reveals that many young women are unconvinced by Trump's claims that his business acumen will serve the country better than Clinton's extensive political record - and most agree that Clinton, not Trump, has the qualities necessary to succeed as president.
The survey of nearly 1,200 women between the ages of 18 and 34 who said they are highly likely to vote in the upcoming election, selected randomly from among Cosmopolitan.com newsletter subscribers, shows that while 63 percent of likely voters say Clinton's political experience is a net positive, 64 percent view Trump's lack of experience as a net negative.
Sixty-six percent of likely voters in the survey said that if the election were held today, they would vote for Clinton, while 25 percent said they would vote for Trump, and 9 percent were undecided. Political independents - who constituted 51 percent of likely voters - also exhibited strong support for Clinton, with 63 percent saying they would vote for her if the election were held today.
The findings revealed deep skepticism and anxiety among Cosmopolitan.com readers about Trump's ability to govern. For likely voters like Rachel Wakser, 30, a quality assurance analyst living in Texas, Clinton's imperfections as a candidate were balanced by her decades of experience in politics, as First Lady, Secretary of State, and New York senator. "You can look at Hillary's record and see what she's accomplished, how she's voted - politics is an industry, and she knows how it works," Wakser, who is supporting Clinton, said. "What does Trump have? A record as a reality TV star and a businessman. How is he going to be able to get anything done? He's a very skilled negotiator, as he likes to remind us, but this isn't business. It's our lives and our country."
Under fire for his unprofessional campaign and bizarrely timed trip to Scotland for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at one of his golf courses, Trump continues to insist that his business background is an asset. In a recent speech, he attacked Clinton as a corrupt political opportunist; Clinton responded by accusing him of making "over-the-top promises" that inevitably fall apart.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were sharp divisions between Republicans and Democrats on whether the candidates' political experience, or lack thereof, was an asset or a detriment. The vast majority (86 percent) of Democrats agreed that Hillary Clinton's political experience was an asset, compared to 17 percent of Republicans. On the other hand, two-thirds (66 percent) of Republicans said Donald Trump's lack of political experience was an asset, compared to 11 percent of Democrats. Independents, overall, were more likely to see Clinton's political experience as an asset and Trump's lack of experience as a detriment.
Some Cosmopolitan.com readers like Jessie Bratcher, 22, who lives in Alabama and plans to vote for Trump in the election, expressed confidence in his business background. "We need to treat the economy like a business, and maybe Trump can get us out of our trillions of dollars in debt," she said. "He may not have the political experience, but that's why we have political and military advisors."
This was not, however, the dominant view among Cosmopolitan.com readers, especially Clinton supporters, many of whom cited her experience as the primary reason they were voting for her. "I don't understand why anyone would want someone who's just winging it as commander-in-chief," said Priscilla Rios, a 32-year-old marketing coordinator in California. "Hillary has been in the game forever, and she's developed the skills she needs to succeed in this position. We should look at this like any other professional position - you need to prove your qualifications. Wanting the job isn't enough. Just because I like basketball doesn't mean I should be allowed to play in the NBA."
Few Cosmopolitan.com readers expressed unqualified support for Clinton. But overall, they were far likelier to say that she has the qualities necessary to succeed as president, at least compared to Trump. In the survey, likely voters were asked to rate the importance of nine attributes on a scale of 0 to 10. The following percentages of voters gave these attributes an 8 to 10: critical thinking ability (94 percent), integrity (91 percent), management ability (88 percent), vision (85 percent), and perseverance (84 percent) highest, above emotional intelligence (79 percent), temperament (79 percent), political skill (73 percent), and public speaking ability (67 percent).
When respondents were asked how they rated the candidates across each attribute, Clinton outperformed Trump in each category, leading him by an average of 36 points across the board and at least 28 points on each one. Only 19 percent of likely voters said that Trump had stronger critical thinking abilities, as opposed to 65 percent who picked Clinton. Even on attributes that might seem to track with business acumen, like management ability, Clinton was rated considerably higher than Trump (55 percent vs. 27 percent). And in the areas where Clinton has taken the greatest beating from her rivals, like integrity, she still significantly outpaced Trump (55 percent vs. 21 percent).
"Trump's campaign is empty - it's entirely based on a cult of personality," said Rachel S., 25, who lives in Pennsylvania and plans to vote either for Clinton or a third-party candidate. "He doesn't have a policy plan to propose, and he doesn't know how to execute it. As far as I can tell, he doesn't know the first thing about running a government."
Nearly all of the Cosmopolitan.com readers interviewed said that they saw Trump as an arrogant, unpredictable bully - an assessment that was reinforced by Clinton's wide advantages on emotional intelligence, temperament, and political ability. "He's overly confident and brash, and I don't think that bodes well," said Regina Liggins, 34, a nurse from Oklahoma who is leaning toward Clinton. "You have to be flexible as president, and I can't see him working with anyone to get things done. It always has to go his way."
Some even called Trump's business savvy into question. "I think he talks a lot of nonsense about his businesses - it's not clear how successful they've been or how honestly he's run them," said Meredith Mannion, 27, who lives in Illinois.
But while Clinton benefits from a comparison to Trump when it comes to these leadership qualities, readers didn't view Clinton as strong in all areas. For instance, although many Cosmopolitan.com readers indicated in the survey that Clinton had more integrity than Trump, several raised questions in follow-up interviews about her honesty and trustworthiness. (Cosmopolitan.com's survey found that a majority of likely voters are voting against their candidate's opponent, rather than for their candidate.) "I admire her political experience, but it seems like she's always hiding something," Karlyann Santiago, a 26-year-old sales representative from New Hampshire, said. "Compared to Trump, it's a no-brainer, but I still wonder about her ulterior motives. She just doesn't seem very transparent."
But Priscilla Rios, the marketing coordinator from California, was enthusiastic about Clinton despite her imperfections. "She's made a lot of bad calls, sure - Benghazi and the emails and all that drama," Rios said. "But she's got the experience and in terms of the skills you need to be president, Trump doesn't even come close. Hillary is resilient. You can tell she really wants the job, and I think she can bring a lot of good things to the country."
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