Poll puts Clinton, Trump ahead in swing states

Home state politicians don’t fare well either – Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Pennsylvania Sen.

Reminding viewers President Obama had named Bill Clinton our country’s Explainer in Chief, Colbert asked Clinton to explain Sanders’ polling and Donald Trump’s too. Biden leads Carson 45 percent to 42 percent and leads Rubio 46 percent to 43 percent. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has made substantial gains in his challenge to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner.

Biden would absolutely crush Trump in all three states, with his biggest margin of victory coming in Florida, where he has a 52-38 advantage. Both are firmly rooted in their party’s establishment, are at their heart political pragmatists rather than ideologues, and are close to the same age.

Quinnipiac said it surveyed voters in the midwestern state of Ohio, neighboring Pennsylvania and the southern state of Florida due to their importance in USA presidential elections.

Fully one Republican voter in 6 remains undecided, with the Pennsylvania primary still a half-year away. Marco Rubio at 13%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Sen. Even Carly Fiorina remains in fourth place with 8%. That is a problem since that side of the party has a flock of candidates (Trump, Carson, Rick Santorum, etc.). Biden has 21 percent with 19 percent for Sanders and 11 percent undecided.

Without Biden in the race, Clinton holds majority support in all three states when his supporters are re-allocated to their second choice candidate, while Sanders’ backing hovers around 25%.

But on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday night, the former president shared his thoughts on why her contenders are thriving. Also, her deep and abiding love of all things scary and risky on TV – including “a ton of Dateline” – which must have thrilled NBC News, coming three days before this Friday’s Dateline: The Cosby Accusers Speak, in which 27 Bill Cosby accusers gather in the same room to share their stories with Kate Snow.

“He’s a master brander, and he’s the most interesting character out there, and because he says something that overrides the ideological differences”, Clinton said of Trump. Lindsey Graham on favorability/unfavorability split (net -22 percent) and among Republicans ranks in the lower half of the field.

“Those who were waiting for Donald Trump’s campaign to collapse will need to wait longer – at least in the three key states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania”, said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. Clinton has the worst ratings of any of the candidates tested on the question. Trump is the top choice in each state as the candidate Republicans say they definitely would not support, with 31% saying they’ve ruled him out in Pennsylvania and 29% each in Ohio and Florida saying they definitely won’t support him. She still beats Trump by more (5 points) than any other Republican. The Democratic margin of error is 4.2 percent. The survey includes 396 Democrats with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.