Rasmussen poll: Trump leads Clinton nationally

Hillary Clinton is clinging to just a two-point national lead over Donald Trump, according to a new poll, a far narrower margin than most other surveys show.

Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster polled 736 registered voters last week and found Clinton leading Trump 47-40 percent among 496 likely voters, a considerable drop from her 49-38 percent lead in F&M’s July poll in the wake of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

The poll – while still the outlier and with results within the survey’s margin of error – marks the first time Trump has led Clinton in a national poll since mid-July.

Clinton had touted her growing support from small contributors, with $44 million contributed online. Clinton leads among white women (45/38 percent) and nonwhite voters (70/25 percent), and Trump leads with white men (41/38 percent). But the respondents are evenly divided on which candidate has the ability to fix the economy and better protect the nation from terrorism.”As we get closer to the election and voters begin to focus in on policy, these questions are going to get more important”, Madonna said. Libertarian candidate Johnson got 10 percent while Green Party candidate Stein got 2 percent.

Clinton’s unfavorable rating is at 58 percent, up from 53 percent three weeks ago. For the sake of comparison, Elway had a poll in early September 2012 that showed President Obama up by 17 – and he ended up winning by 15.

The Democratic presidential nominee has an average of 42 percent support to Trump’s 37 percent, according to five nationwide telephone polls conducted between August 9 and 30.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., August 31, 2016.

And while Trump has consolidated his support among Republicans, likely voters are expressing an increasingly sour view of Clinton: The share of likely voters with an unfavorable view of the former secretary of state has grown to 57 percent, compared with Trump’s 54 percent, her worst showing on that metric in a month.

Both major candidates have lost some support this week from voters in their respective parties. Trump’s following among Republicans has fallen to 71 per cent, from 76 last week; Clinton is at 73 per cent, down from 79 previously.

Could they drive down their own negatives with positive, advocacy ads about themselves? I think it’s as straightforward as this: Hillary has always been, and remains, a awful candidate.

Trump’s issues have largely been due to questionable campaign strategies, such as making a pitch for black voters but only speaking to mostly white audiences, as CNN noted.