A minuscule 4 percent of Americans think that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush represents middle class values well, numbers far worse than Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama or either political party, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds.
Bush’s biggest electability problems would come if he does survive what will be a bloodbath GOP primary, as it’s unlikely conservative Republican voters would even turn out for him in a November general election should he get the nomination. This poll shows yet again why that’s the case.
Respondents were asked the following question about Obama, Clinton, Bush, the Republican Party and the Democrat Party: “Let me read you a list of some groups and individuals, and I would like you to tell me how well each one represents the values of the middle class–very well, fairly well, just somewhat well, or not very well. If you don’t know the name, please just say so.”
A whopping 22 percent gave Obama a “very well” rating, and 18 percent did so for Clinton. The Democratic Party got 15 percent “very well” rating and Republicans got 7 percent. But Bush only managed to muster 4 percent, an abysmally low performance among arguably the most important part of the American public for any political candidate: the middle class.
A total of 40 percent responded Bush doesn’t represent middle class values, and 38 percent were somewhere in the middle between “very well” and “not very well.”
Bush’s spokeswoman Kristy Campbell hasn’t responded to an emailed request for comment in response to these numbers.
The survey was conducted from March 1 through March 5 with a sample of a 1,000 adults with a margin of error of 3.1 percent.