Latest national poll out this morning shows Hillary expanding her lead over Bernie to 31%.
Hillary Clinton increases her lead over Bernie Sanders: NBC/WSJ poll
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.
Hillary is up on Bernie to the tune of 2 to 1 exactly. The previous NBC/WSJ poll from 10/18 showed 49% to 29%, a 20 point difference, but that was with Biden still included, and getting 15%. Without Biden Hillary had bested Bernie 58% to 33% in that poll. Now she has widened that lead, likely due to the impact of the Benghazi hearing.
In this poll's September version Hillary was at 42% while Bernie was at 35%, a 7% race, with Biden getting 17%. Now, Hillary has blown the race wide open, to a 31% gap, while Bernie slowly but steadily bleeds support, from 35% to 33% to now 31% in today's particular poll.
In this most recent poll, more than eight in 10 Democrats also say they can see themselves supporting Clinton for the nod, while only 61% say the same of the Vermont senator. An overwhelming majority of Democrats — 84% — believe that Clinton is most likely to win the Democratic nomination, versus just 12% who say Sanders is the best bet. And a similar margin — 81% — believe that Clinton has the best chance of any Democratic candidate of winning the White House in 2016.
Democrats are very comfortable voting for Hillary, to the tune of 81% or more. Bernie's comfort level is decent, but not really good, a full 20% below Hillary's. 81% of Democrats give Hillary the best chance of any candidate of winning the White House, a great vote of confidence for Hillary.
Before the hearing, 58% of Democratic primary voters said they were satisfied with Clinton’s response to questions about the Benghazi attacks, while 11% said they were not satisfied and 31% said they did not know enough about the controversy to comment. Now, 72% of Democrats say they’re satisfied and only 8% say they are not satisfied with her answers.
Among swing voters, the share who say they are not satisfied with her response to the Benghazi controversy has plummeted from 84% at the beginning of October to 40% now, although only about a quarter — 23% — are satisfied.
It is clear that for Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning Independents issues surrounding Benghazi and Email servers have been laid to rest, which explains some of her surge ahead. With 3 months left before the first votes are cast in Iowa Hillary is looking increasingly strong for the nomination.
As for the general election, Hillary still has work to do to improve her fav/unfav among Independents (Right-wing Republicans are likely not her target, many of them actually thought the Benghazi hearing went swimmingly - for Republicans.) But, that contest is a full year away and, if she wins the nomination, she'll contrast nicely on the issues and temperament against whatever clown emerges out of the clown car. Cruz, Trump, Carson, Rubio, bring it on.