Former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the most famous and well-known politician (not named Barack Obama) in America today. Clinton has been in the national public eye for nearly a quarter-century. Everyone has their own opinion of her, and for that reason she is polling like an incumbent. The only thing is that she is polling like a vulnerable incumbent.
The joint scandals involving Clinton violating State Department email regulations and all the shady money around the Clinton Foundation have taken a serious toll, especially on her credibility. According to a Quinnipiac Poll released Thursday, a full 53% say Clinton is not honest. Only 39% disagree.
Clinton scores high on leadership (60-37%) but is weak on whether she cares about voters’ “needs and problems” (48-47%).
The ever-widening Republican presidential field is all tied up. The best any GOP contender (or likely contender) is polling at is 10% — and there are a total of five(!) Republicans tied at that 10%: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, and Scott Walker.
Of note is the fact that Dr. Ben Carson (who has never held political office) made his way into that group.
The second tier is made up of Rand Paul (7%), Ted Cruz (6%), Donald Trump (5%), and Chris Christie (4%). Carly Fiorina and John Kasich are tied at 2%.
In a national general election match-up against various Republican challengers, against some, Hillary Clinton has fallen considerably since her pre-scandal highs where she looked unbeatable. She is still ahead of every name in the GOP. She cannot, though, achieve the magic 50% against any of them, except for Donald Trump, where she just hits 50%.
Rand Paul and Marco Rubio poll the best against Hillary. Respectively, they are behind by only 4 and 5 points. The numbers in parentheses are Clinton’s best showings against these same candidates last year. Rubio and Paul have made the best gains.
46 – 42 percent over Paul; (49 – 39)
45 – 41 percent over Rubio; (50 – 34)
46 – 37 percent over Christie; (47 – 38)
47 – 40 percent over Huckabee; (49 – 40)
47 – 37 percent over Bush; (49 – 38)
46 – 38 percent over Walker; (48 – 39)
48 – 37 percent over Cruz; (50 – 35)
50 – 32 percent over Trump.
Clinton’s favorability has also taken a hit. She is now upside down 45-47%. Last November she sat at 50-45%.
Among the Republicans, Jeb Bush has an upside down favorable/unfavorable rating of 28-44%. Chris Christie isn’t much better at 28-46%. Opinions are still forming of the other Republicans.
Among the five Republicans tied at 10%, two have not yet officially entered the race — Bush and Walker. The publicity around an official announcement along with the release of the gobs of cash both have reportedly been raising (especially Bush), could shake things loose.
UPDATE: This article misidentified a Quinnipiac poll as a Pew poll. The error has been corrected in the story and headline.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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