Scot Lehigh’s analysis is correct as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough in today’s political climate (“Can Trump beat Clinton?” Opinion, May 6). He assumes the election will be decided by rational voters, but that ignores today’s political reality, where both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have high negative ratings, each of them over 50 percent.

That means many voters can’t stand either Trump or Clinton. The campaigns will devolve to demonizing the other candidate, as opposed to focusing on policy differences, as Lehigh assumes, and Trump will cream Clinton for her Wall Street ties, foreign policy “experience” in Libya, vote to invade Iraq, and, most significantly, her attacks on the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.

The biggest difference will be the enthusiasm gap. Trump, like Bernie Sanders, has a large core of fervent supporters who will come out to back him no matter what, while Clinton comes across as Mitt Romney in a pantsuit.