A new
NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has three key takeaways: 1) voters prefer a change candidate to an experienced one in 2016; 2) Hillary is poised to do better than Jeb on that count; 3) support for marriage equality has hit an all-time high in the poll.
On change:
In the poll, 59 percent of all voters prefer a candidate who will bring greater changes to current policies, even if he or she is less experienced and tested - up from 55 percent who said this in July 2008 during the general-election contest between Barack Obama and John McCain.
On Clinton being more "changey" than Bush:
Sixty percent of registered voters (including 42 percent of Republicans) say that Bush represents a return to the policies of the past, versus 27 percent (and 49 percent of GOP voters) who say he will provide new ideas and a vision for the future.
By comparison, 51 percent of all voters (but just 24 percent of Democrats) think Clinton represents a return to the policies of the past, and 44 percent (including 73 percent of Democrats) say she'll provide new ideas for the future.
On
record-high 59 percent support for (and 33 percent opposition to) marriage equality:
The new survey found that 59% of Americans support allowing same-sex marriage, nearly double the 30% support reported in 2004 ...
Among Republicans, 40% support gay marriage, up from to 27% two years ago.
Other numbers worthy of mention:
• 86 percent of Democrats say they will support Hillary Clinton if she runs
• Gov. Scott Walker has the strongest GOP supporter v. detractor ratio at 53 to 17 (+36 points); Sen. Marco Rubio is second best at 56 to 26 (+30 points); while Republicans are nearly divided on Jeb Bush at 49 to 42 (+7 points)
•Gov. Chris Christie's numbers are upside down (-25 points)