Since our last national poll, there have been several big news stories that the mainstream media want you to believe have had a significant impact on voter opinion. To recap:
Vice President Biden decided not to run for president.
Former secretary of state Clinton testified before Congress about Benghazi in what the MSM conventional wisdom took to be a major PR victory for her.
The third Republican presidential debate took place on CNBC.
Taking into account these events, coupled with the cheerleading from the Democrats and their biased allies in the mainstream media, would lead one to conclude that there has been a major surge to Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The truth, however, is that not that much overall has changed in terms of the the opinions of American voters.
Sixty-six percent of all voters say that the United States is on the wrong track. That’s up two points from a month ago. Only 28 percent say we are headed in the right direction.
President Obama’s job approval is down a point to 47 percent and his disapproval rating up two points to 52 percent. So he has remained a net negative since December 2012.
The majority of voters (53 percent) still prefer smaller government with fewer services to a larger government with more services (32 percent).
The congressional generic ballot remains tied at 43 percent. However, undecided voters prefer smaller government 49 percent to 19 percent; disapprove of Obama by a two-to-one ratio (61 percent to 33 percent); and say that the country is on the wrong track (75 percent vs. only 15 percent who say it’s headed in the right direction). There are signs that the undecided vote should break heavily for Republicans for Congress.
However, despite all the media hype for Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of the Biden decision and Benghazi hearings, her favorable-to-unfavorable rating only slightly improved to 45 percent favorable, up four points, vs. 50 percent unfavorable, down only one point. It seems that most Americans still don’t like her.
So while we’re months off from deciding who the Republican nominee will be for president, it’s clear that the pro-Obama and pro-Clinton media is going to have to work much harder to make Hillary Clinton a winner.
— John McLaughlin and Jim McLaughlin are Republican strategists and partners in the national polling firm McLaughlin & Associates.
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