One would hope the American people have the good judgement to avoid choosing a president they characterize as “terrible.” It doesn’t seem a lot to ask. Lucky for us the Pew Research Center from time to time puts that very question to registered voters, specifically polling “the percentage of voters who say each candidate would make a terrible president.” No kidding.

I know Donald Trump likes to cite polls he has won, but he’s probably not going to mention this one in a stump speech any time soon. That’s right, in a survey released by Pew on March 31st, it was found that among registered voters Mr. Trump was thought to be a terrible choice for president by 44 per cent.

Hillary Clinton comes in second on the terrible scale with 30 percent, Sanders next at 21 percent, then Cruz at 19 per cent, and finally Kasich at 7 percent.

And there’s movement on Trump’s rating as back in January he was deemed terrible by only 38 per cent of registered voters. Big Mo there.

I’m a little surprised at Ted Cruz’s paltry 19 percent terrible rating since I’m sure he deserves a higher number. Part of the explanation is that an additional 17 percent consider him a merely “poor” choice, which could mean that Republcans who can’t stomach Trump and know they have to settle for Cruz don’t want to admit that their only realistic option truly is terrible.

Fun with numbers and all that and a lot of it has to do with the bifurcated nature of the American electorate, but that Trump number is impressive.

I’m probably not alone among Democrats who want to see Trump fail to secure the GOP nomination just because it will help to take the microphone out of his hand.

And then I think, with numbers like these, let’s keep him around a while longer to ensure no Republican gets anywhere near the White House.

Go, Donald, go.

Follow me on Twitter @RichardKBarry1