Trump edges ahead of Clinton in US presidential race: Reuters/Ipsos poll

A new poll shows that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has taken a two-percentage point lead over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in the run-up to the 2016 USA presidential race. Among white voters with college degrees, Clinton actually gained ground compared with pre-convention results, going from an even 40% to 40% split to a 44% to 39% edge over Trump. The company found Trump on an uptick since the Department of Justice decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute Clinton for her use of a private email server as Secretary of State.

“I know that this is the first time that one of our major parties has nominated a woman”, Clinton said. Add all of that to the poll’s 3.5% margin of error, and Trump’s 3% lead isn’t so much a national crisis as it is unreliable mathematics. Trump asked as he accused Clinton of throwing Wasserman Schultz “under the bus”.

But the new polls don’t just show Trump’s stock rising (however temporarily that may be); they also have some very bad news for Hillary Clinton and her already-declining personal image. “Trump trailed by around 3 points in our forecasts a week ago”.

Trump fell back in the poll as he feuded with party bosses over comments he made about Hispanics, Muslims and immigrants, but he rebounded this month as his candidacy took the national spotlight at the Cleveland convention.

Trump’s post-convention bounce was 6 points, according to the CNN/ORC poll.

The network said there had not been a significant post-convention bounce in since 2000.

Trump’s surge is considered a “convention bounce”, a term used to describe the bump in support for presidential candidates after their party’s convention.

Trump leads the Democratic nominee 39-37 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over the weekend.

“Let’s defeat her in November”, Trump implored attendees at the convention last week in Cleveland.

Trump said he would eliminate waste, fraud and abuse at the VA while corruption at the department in a Clinton administration would be “swept under the rug”.

The CNN poll, in fact, shows 45 per cent of those who voted in Democratic primaries still say they wish it was Sanders.

Trump’s overall favorability rating is 34 percent, though 66 percent of Republican voters view him favorably.

I mentioned last week that the electoral map didn’t look so good for Donald Trump.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English with about 962 likely voters.