Proving once again that many of America’s political pundits are paid to shape public opinion through wishful thinking (disguised as analysis), Monmouth University just released a national poll showing that all this PunditSpeak about Donald Trump having a ceiling of support around 20%… No, 25%… For sure, 30%… is nonsense.
Monmouth has The Donald obliterating the competition nationally with 41% support.
In this particular poll, Trump’s closest rival, Ted Cruz, sits at just 14% support. Marco Rubio trails with just 10%; Ben Carson plummets to single digits with 9%. From there it just gets embarrassing: Jeb Bush (3%), John Kasich (3%), Chris Christie (2%), Carly Fiorina (2%), Mike Huckabee (2%), and Rand Paul (2%).
In this particular poll, Trump is surging. In mid-October the billionaire businessman sat at 28%. Cruz and Rubio both jumped +4 points. Carson lost -9.
A full 65% of primary voters believe Trump has the right temperament to be president. Thirty percent of those polled would be enthusiastic with Trump as their nominee, with 37% saying they would be satisfied. Only 12% would be dissatisfied, and 16% would be upset.
Despite a month of the worst media coverage imaginable, Trump’s favorability rating improved from 52% to 61%. His unfavorable rating dipped from 33% to 29%. In favorability, Trump beats Cruz (58%), Rubio (55%) and Carson (57%).
The Monmouth poll cannot really be written off as an outlier. A CBS/New York Times poll released a week earlier showed Trump at 35% with Cruz in second with 16%. In fact, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll getting all the attention today, the one with Cruz only -5 points behind Trump (27% to 22%), appears to be the real outlier.
In the Real Clear Politics poll of national polls, Trump enjoys 31.4% support, with Cruz a full -15 points behind with 16.3%.
Either way, in a 14 person race, Trump is obliterating second place with anywhere from 30% to 41% support. If he was anyone other than Trump, this race would be considered long over.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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