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The lead up to the 2016 U.S. presidential elections is not taking the direction everyone has expected, with the most populist candidates getting all the attention, and those expected to be shoe-ins taking a back seat.
Indeed, a few months ago the elections were all but considered a done deal: Republican Party (GOP) establishment's choice and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was expected to top the list, and Democratic icon Hillary Clinton, former senator, secretary of state and wife of former President Bill Clinton, was expected to go unchallenged.
But in politics, just a few months can be a lifetime. Quite unexpectedly, billionaire mogul Donald Trump has stolen Bush's thunder. And on the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders is starting to present a danger to Clinton, analysts said.
"The success of anti-establishment candidates like Sanders and Trump shows that this is an unconventional year. Voters remain angry about the financial collapse and are looking for messengers who can represent their viewpoints," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
Trump has hit a populist nerve and tapped into conservative Americans' anger and disapproval of the country's direction - sentiments that many of the other GOP candidates seem to fail to fully recognize.
His entrance into the political arena comes when polls find a heightened public dislike for Congress that has not been seen in decades, and at a time when many conservatives, rightly or wrongly, feel the country is being hijacked by illegal aliens, far-left Democrats, special interests and GOP politicians concerned only with furthering their own careers, rather than promoting the interest of their constituents.
It also comes amid what critics call a particularly incompetent and weak foreign policy under the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, with terror group Islamic State (IS) running amok in the Middle East and involved.
"Trump is doing well because conservative voters see him as being a better fighter for them compared to the rest of the GOP field. Voters worry that the other candidates are too oriented towards the establishment and not willing to fight for their interests," West said.
On the Democrats' side, Hillary Clinton, while ahead in the polls, is currently being overlooked by U.S. media, in favor of Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist who is gathering huge crowds at rallies.
The very unexpected popularity of both Trump and Sanders shows a country with a significant chunk of potential voters who are dissatisfied with the status quo, and who believe the mainstream candidates of their own parties are even part of the problem.
"Sanders' popularity shows that the progressive base has concerns about Hillary Clinton. His success is more a commentary on her than him," West said.
"He is able to appeal to that anti-establishment element because those voters worry that Clinton is in bed with large financial interests and not willing to fight for ordinary voters," he said.
Additionally, Clinton has always had a hard time convincing voters that she's one of them, in a country where being approachable and folksy can make or break a candidate. So far, she has not fared well in relating to voters.
Her immense wealth, power, globetrotting and prestige have done little to endear her to U.S. voters, though she remains a strong candidate in the 2016 race to the White House. Plus, she often comes across as stiff in public appearances, unlike her folksy husband, former President Bill Clinton, who has always been adept at convincing voters that he's one of them.
Moreover, she has recently come under scrutiny for having kept a private email server while being secretary of state, and is now being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as questions mount over whether she put U.S. national security at risk.
Still, many experts expect Trump not to last, although many are surprised that he's lasted as far as he has. Sanders, while drawing large crowds and appealing to young people, is still more than 30 points behind Clinton, according to Real Clear Politics' poll average. Enditem
