Hillary Clinton would thump Trump if election were held today, poll finds

Ted Cruz has moved past Trump into a lead of his own in Iowa. And Chris Christie has surged, displacing Bush in fifth place, where Jeb was just getting comfortable.

The backdrop to all this is a mood of anxiety – both economic and personal security – pervading the GOP electorate in these early states.

Only 3 percent surveyed by Quinnipiac remain undecided, but 53 percent said they could change their mind before the February 1 caucuses.

The poll shows Trump, the NY businessman, leading with 28 percent.

The shift is notable for Cruz, who had previously said he believes that the race will come down to a contest between himself and Sen. His comments at the fundraiser, an audio copy of his remarks obtained by The New York Times, were the first time he said them in the context of Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

The Quinnipiac University poll said 50 percent of those polled, including Republicans, Democrats and Independents, said Trump would be an embarrassment, more than twice as much as the 23 percent who said they would be proud to have him as their next chief executive. Trump has also kept nearly all the supporters he had from last month, among those re-interviewed.

Currently, Ted Cruz is the center of the race. “Every other candidate is trying to do the same thing”, he said.

Earlier this fall, Carson had pulled into a tie for the lead with Trump, but has since faded. He’s still up about two-to-one over his nearest competitor.

American voters back Clinton over Trump 47 – 40 percent.

If Rubio, a Florida senator, were pitted against Trump, the billionaire real-estate mogul would take 40 percent support of Republican and independent voters to Rubio’s 34 percent, according to the poll. A CBS/YouGov poll released on Sunday has Cruz over Trump in Iowa by nine points and a Loras College poll released earlier in December has the senator defeating Trump by seven points in Iowa. Should Christie finish ahead of Rubio in New Hampshire, it will become even harder for mainstream Republicans to settle on a consensus alternative to the Trump/Cruz faction.

Marco Rubio remains in double digits in New Hampshire and SC, and Governor Chris Christie has now shown upward movement in New Hampshire, doubling his support there in the last month.

“Half of American voters say they’d be embarrassed to have Donald Trump as their Commander in Chief and most Americans think he doesn’t have a good chance in November, but there he is still at the top of the Republican heap”, Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a press release. Republicans favor the idea of banning Muslims – 77 percent in Iowa – including evangelical voters who also favor it in the same large numbers – 75 percent.

And 59 percent of voters had an unfavorable opinion of Trump, more than any other Republican, with 33 percent viewing him favorably. They feel these things “need to be discussed”. But the other candidates were doing better than in the CBS News poll.