Poll at this stage in a Presidential election don’t mean much, but a new poll shows likely Democratic Party Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton widening her lead over almost-certain Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump:
The general election began in earnest Wednesday, and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is starting with a big lead against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
That’s according to a new CNN/ORC national poll released Wednesday, the day after Trump all but clinched the GOP race with a primary victory in Indiana that forced Ted Cruz to drop out. Clinton lost Indiana to her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to continue his campaign to the convention, but Clinton’s delegate lead has become insurmountable.
The survey found Clinton starting the general election with a 13-point advantage against Trump.
But both Trump and Clinton have high negatives:
Both candidates, however, are viewed unfavorably. Clinton is underwater by just one point (48% view her favorably, compared to 49% unfavorably. But Trump is in a deeper hole, with only 39% viewing him favorably and 57% unfavorably.
Clinton’s 54%-41% advantage over Trump is her largest since July. Her supporters are split over their reasons for backing her, with 51% saying they are voting for her to oppose Trump. On the Republican side, 57% of his supporters back him to prevent another Clinton from entering the White House.
So the election will hinge on:
1. Which side hates or fears the other side most.
2. Which side can woo over supporters of candidates who didn’t get the nomination so they support the party’s nominee.
And another factor will be the free air time. Will Trump keep getting tons of free air time as the networks fall all over themselves to televise his live rallies and speeches, have him do phone ins, and try to get him on at every opportunity to boost their ratings and ad revenues? And, if so, will they offer Clinton the same opportunity or will we see a re-run of part of the reason why Trump is now in all but name his party’s nominee?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.