Trump catches Carson in Iowa poll

The popularity of Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to dip. “I don’t like showing a person sleeping at a podium”, he quipped at a news conference for his new book.

Republican primary voters identified Trump as the best candidate to bolster the economy, as well as the most likely to beat Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee.

The last batch of public polling has shown similar groupings, with Carson and Trump dominating the rest of the Republican field.

Trump has a giant 20-point lead in Florida over Carson, with Rubio just one point behind Carson.

Rubio was joined by one other candidate who experienced a gain of more than one point, and managed not to drop in the polls. Bernie Sanders. Three percent said they would support former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“Notably, though, about a third of state voters can’t or won’t say whom they would prefer”, said Jason Reineke, associate director of the statewide poll at the university.

“Is there a doctor in the house?”

But he says “A year is an eternity in presidential campaigns”.

Released on Tuesday, the poll showed that Clinton and Carson each would garner 47 percent of the vote if the election were held today. Ted Cruz is No. 4 with 13%.

In a general election match-up, Carson beat Clinton 50 to 40 percent.

Women go 45 percent for Carson and 44 percent for Clinton, while men back the Republican 55 – 35 percent.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have 4 percent each, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has 3 percent, and South Carolina Sen.

The two leading Democrats, Clinton and Sanders, had the lowest favorability ratings among all candidates, according to the poll.

Following behind Carson and Trump for the nomination are Sens. That puts the two candidates in a statistical dead heat.

Conducted from October 29 to November 2 via telephone, the Quinnipiac University poll surveyed more than 1,100 national registered voters with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. For reasons that are not clear, Internet polls tend to show Donald Trump in a better position than live interviewer polls.

The CNN/ORC global survey gave Trump 25 percent and Carson 23 percent among likely Iowa GOP caucus goers, within the poll’s 4-percentage-point margin of error.