The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton increasing her lead to the tune of 2-1 over Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.
In the new poll, conducted Oct. 25-29, 62% of Democrats chose Clinton as their top choice to win their party’s presidential nomination, while 31% picked Sanders. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley received just 3% support.
That’s up from Clinton’s 25-point lead earlier in October, 58% to 33%.
Eighty-four percent of Dems see Clinton as the eventual nominee; only 12% expect Sanders to secure the nomination
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has begun airing his first TV campaign ad of the election cycle, titled “Real Change.”
As part of an ad buy of over $2 million, the spot will run in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“Thousands of Americans have come out to see Bernie speak and we’ve seen a great response to his message,” Jeff Weaver, the campaign manager, told The Hill. “This ad marks the next phase of this campaign. We’re bringing that message directly to the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire.”
Eyebrows were raised yesterday when the results of the first Monmouth University poll in Iowa showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had bounced up to an amazing 41% lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.
If this month has been a giant, delicious cake layered with all of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s favorites, then Monmouth University just slathered on a whole lot of icing. Its new poll puts Clinton up 41 points in Iowa — the widest lead she’s seen there in any poll since June. Or: since before the Bernie Sanders surge.
It’s a good time to go back to the polling average compiled by Real Clear Politics. In an average of recent polls, Clinton is up in Iowa by a more modest 15.5 points — still more than enough to inspire a few high fives around the office in the manner of a stereotypical successful political campaign.
It’s worth noting two massive events that occurred in the past week: Vice President Biden announced he would not run for the nomination, and Clinton’s confident and commanding appearance at the congressional Benghazi hearing.
No, Bernie Sanders supporters – CNN did not delete a poll showing he won the first Democratic debate.
Although this story has run wild on the internet, PolitiFact has debunked this internet myth:
The poll showing Sanders way ahead is here on Facebook through CNN.com/vote. It’s not on CNN’s website, but it’s not clear that it ever was on CNN’s website.
CNN’s digital team used a Facebook app to run live polls of users about what they thought of the debate as it was happening.
CNN anchor Don Lemon reported on the strong show of support for Sanders from CNN’s Facebook Lounge on debate night.
So not only did CNN not delete the poll, but the news channel also did not hide it.
Clearly, her strong performance at this week’s Democratic debate made a good impression on New Hampshire voters as she has regained the lead in the Granite State.
The results of the new survey show Hillary at 37% and Sanders at 35%. That’s within the error of margin, but a clear improvement over past weeks.
Regarding the debate specifically, among the 283 polled who watched the two hour event, 54% said Clinton was the winner; 24% chose Sanders.
New Hampshire Democrats also pick Clinton as having the best chance to win in the general election next fall – 52% majority favoring Clinton, while only 16% who look to Sanders.
Apparently, Martin Shkreli — the “pharma bro” who raised the price of an important AIDS and cancer medication by 5000% — thought he could buy access to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.
The little weasel made a maximum campaign donation of $2,700 hoping for face time with Sanders, but the campaign turned around and donated it to the Whitman-Walker health clinic in Washington instead.
Pharmaceutics CEO Martin Shkreli wanted to make a donation to Bernie Sanders’ campaign in order to get a meeting with the Vermont senator, according to Stat. The Sanders campaign said no thanks. They’ll be passing on the money to a Washington health clinic, and Shkreli—the so-called “most hated” man in America whose company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of an AIDS drug from $13.50 to $750 a pill—will not be getting to meet with the Democratic presidential candidate.
In an interview Thursday with Stat, Shkreli said he was “furious” Sanders was using him as a punching bag after he made the maximum allowed individual contribution, $2,700, to the candidate’s campaign, so that the two could meet and discuss their differences. But Shkreli, who tweeted his support for Sanders during Tuesday’s debate, may be looking in the wrong place. “We are not keeping the money from this poster boy for drug company greed,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told Stat, saying the $2,700 will be donated to the Whitman-Walker health clinic in Washington.
According to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, a majority of registered Democratic voters felt former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Tuesday night’s Democratic debate.
A 55 percent majority of registered Democratic voters who watched the debate said Clinton won. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who saw a surge in online interest and fundraising, was a distant second, with only 22 percent saying he was the best of the night.
Clinton also saw an uptick in the proportion of Democrats who say they want her to be the party’s presidential nominee. Before the debate, 44 percent of registered Democrats said they wanted Clinton to be the nominee. After the debate, the figure had risen to 52 percent.
• It’s notable that Hillary Clinton was the only candidate to bring up LGBT issues at all last night (partly because the topic wasn’t introduced by the moderator) and she did so in the first few minutes of the event in her opening statement.
“This is about bringing our country together again. And I will do everything I can to heal the divides — the divides economically, because there’s too much inequality; the racial divides; the continuing discrimination against the LGBT community…”
• Hillary knew when to not interject and possibly become a target of the discussion, and when to use body language to nod her head in agreement when others were talking – it kept her visually present in the moment.
• Hillary was ready with a strong answer when asked about her vote for the Iraq war: “Well, I recall very well being on a debate stage, I think, about 25 times with then-Sen. Obama debating this very issue. After the election he asked me to become Secretary of State. He valued my judgment and I spent a lot of time with him in the Situation Room going over some very difficult issues.”
• Anderson Cooper was a highlight worth mentioning, also. Strong, prepared, not afraid of clear follow-up questions, he held the candidates to the questions and when needed would circle back after a non-answer: “Senator, you didn’t answer the question,” he said more than once.
• One quibble I had was the tone set at the beginning as he chose to start with questions that, basically, called each candidate out on their weak spots. No problem with those questions, but I thought it began the event with everyone on defense. As a viewer I’d have preferred that line of questions had come later.
• CNN made little use of the secondary moderators leaving little input from the female (Dana Bash), the African-American (Don Lemon) and the Latino (Juan Carlos Lopez) and there didn’t seem to be a good reason. Cooper delivered a strong performance, but perhaps he forgot his colleagues sitting on stage?
• While I realize neither former Sen. Jim Webb nor Gov. Lincoln Chaffee will not be the next Democratic nominee for president, the amount of time afforded them (which Webb openly groused about the entire evening) was unfair. I understand everyone can’t have EXACTLY the same time, but the difference in talk time and questions was vast. Check the table below.
• Sanders can lay claim to the most memorable moment of the evening when he chimed in on the subject of Clinton’s email server woes. “Let me say something that may not be politically smart, but the secretary is right: the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails,” Sanders stated. “Thank you, Bernie, thank you,” Clinton said.
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent public outings and TV appearances have helped to improve her favorability among voters.
The new survey shows Clinton is viewed favorably by 47 percent of voters, while 49 percent view her unfavorably.
While her numbers have remained fairly high among Democratic voters, this latest poll shows 4 points improvement with Independents and 2 points with Republicans in the last several weeks.
These numbers are similar to the current number two in the Democratic race, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who also showa fairly even numbers (35%/35%) in his favorable/unfavorable rating.
However, among only Democrats, Hillary holds a commanding lead in favorability compared to Sanders. Seventy-nine percent of Dems see her in a positive light while only 47% view Sanders favorably.
While most folks following the Democratic nomination contest are keeping their eyes on Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two voting opportunities in the 2016 presidential race, new CNN/ORC polls for Nevada and South Carolina show a strong, steady hand for Hillary Clinton in those two diverse states.
Clinton has the support of 50% of those who say they are likely to attend the Democratic caucus scheduled for February 20 in Nevada — which plays host to the first debate among the declared Democratic candidates on Tuesday and is the first state to elect delegates after Iowa and New Hampshire.
Sanders follows at 34%, then Vice President Joe Biden at 12%, with the rest of the field garnering less than 1% support.
Among those who say they are likely to vote in South Carolina’s primary, set for one week after Nevada’s caucuses, Clinton holds a larger edge, 49% to Biden’s 24%, with Sanders at 18% and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley at 3%.
If Biden doesn’t run, the spread gets even wider for Hillary: 70% to Sanders’ 20% in South Carolina; Hillary clicks up 9 to 58% in Nevada without Biden while Sanders only edges up 2 points to 36%
Hillary is currently leading in Iowa, the first in the nation contest, but trailing Sanders in New Hampshire. Heading into Super Tuesday, should she win Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina could put a significant wind at her back.
