Do post-convention bumps generally look this disastrous for the other candidate or is Trump just that much uniquely in a horrible position?
It's certainly not a disaster for Hillary Clinton!
The Republican Convention really was a disaster. It failed to heal rifts within the party. It was all the Donald Trump Show. It did little to promote the careers of future Republican leaders.
Democrats had their problems, but they solved them. Oh, did they solve them! They stole the Reagan-Bush legacy except for the Social Darwinism. They had a President unusually popular approaching the end of his second term showing why America elected him twice and leaving a legacy to carry on. Democrats exploited the scapegoating of Donald Trump to find a powerful slogan that one usually associates with Republicans: "STRONGER TOGETHER". Bernie Sanders left no ambiguity in his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Democrats introduced some of the negative material about Donald Trump... with the aid of a masterful comedian Senator Al Franken.
The themes of the 2016 Presidential elections are set.
Conventions rarely decide elections -- but this time the failure of a convention may have decided the election. If you got sick of the "Willie Horton" ads in 1988, then don't worry. It won't be all the same stuff.
