Gary Johnson’s Gaffes Are Helping Hillary

The Hill reports:

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson is fading in the polls, giving a boost to Hillary Clinton. Johnson has suffered through weeks of terrible headlines that have raised questions about his fitness to be commander-in-chief.

Most notably, the former New Mexico governor couldn’t name a foreign leader he respected in one television interview, and in another asked, “what is Aleppo?” in response to a question about the embattled Syrian city.

The backlash against Johnson comes after Democrats watched with alarm as polls between Clinton and Trump tightened in August and early September. The surveys showed Clinton failing to win over left-leaning independents and millennials, who have been flirting with Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

But in recent weeks, there has been a clear softening of support for Johnson that has coincided with Clinton opening up a healthy lead over Trump. Johnson once routinely pulled double-digit support in the national polls.

He took between 10 and 12 percent support in nine polls conducted in August. It has been a downward trend for Johnson ever since. He has not hit double-digits in the 16 national polls conducted since the first presidential debate on Sept. 25.

In that time, Clinton has nearly doubled her lead in the RCP average to 3.8 points over Trump, as Johnson has receded to an average of 7.4 percent support.