'Unpopular' rivals hit the road
Experts say 'negative partisanship' -- voting against a candidate, rather than for a candidate -- will have a major role in deciding who makes it to the White House
With 101 days to go before Americans elect a new president, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were to hit the campaign trail yesterday hoping to secure a poll bump from their dueling party conventions.
In the last fortnight Republicans and Democrats have gathered to formally select their presidential nominees and tee-up what is already one of the most fractious and vitriolic presidential campaigns in living memory.
Both parties are deeply divided and led by profoundly unpopular figures with approval ratings below 40 percent.
Both conventions featured withering personal barbs, with Republicans in Cleveland chanting "lock her up" against Clinton and Democrats in Philadelphia painting Trump as an authoritarian and threat to US democracy.
Experts predict that "negative partisanship" -- voting against a candidate, rather than for a candidate -- will play a major role in deciding who makes it to the White House.
Clinton, fresh from becoming the first woman in history to win the nomination of a major US political party, will take her vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine on a bus journey through Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The so-called "rustbelt" states are vital parts of almost any strategy to garner the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency.
Trump meanwhile will be in Colorado, another battleground state, where his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border could resonate with angry white voters but turn Hispanic voters away in droves.
At the Republican convention Trump doubled-down on controversial far-right plans to stem Muslim and Hispanic immigration and get tough on crime.
Both Clinton and Trump donated large chunks of invaluable convention time to softening their public image.
On Thursday Clinton's daughter Chelsea described Hillary as a mother who took breaks from politics to read her "Goodnight Moon" and a grandmother Facetimes and reads "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo" to Chelsea's daughter.
Trumps daughter Ivanka stepped out as a potent surrogate, trying to help his terrible approval among female voters by promising he would be a compassionate leader who would fight for women's rights and affordable childcare.
Clinton and Trump will face off in their first presidential debate in late September.