Posted on 03/15/2015 11:39:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I thought we had come to some sort of consensus just this week that either Jeb or Scott Walker were the viable frontrunners. But every news outlet and polling agency has to get in their two cents I suppose. Dr. Joyner pops open a new Wall Street Journal / NBC poll this week and discovers that we’re back to the drawing board. Turns out the Marco Rubio is the belle of the ball.
The two Republicans who begin the race on the strongest footing in the poll are Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. More than half of GOP primary voters said they were open to supporting Messrs. Rubio or Walker, compared with 49% who said so of Mr. Bush.
Resistance within the party to Messrs. Rubio and Walker is far lower than for Mr. Bush: Some 26% said they couldn’t see themselves supporting Mr. Rubio, and 17% said so of the Wisconsin governor.
The good news for Mr. Bush is that he has nearly a year to reshape his image before voting begins, and none of his likely rivals shows signs of running away with the race.
Before we get into the more questionable aspects of this survey, let’s take a look at their final numbers.
So the top of the stack is now composed of Rubio, Walker, Huck, Jeb and Rand Paul? Fascinating. And believe it or not, I’m not here to argue over the veracity of their results. These seem like completely reasonable numbers in terms of asking the question that they used. But that’s the whole point here… this was not a question designed to see who had the most support. The wording of the only two options offered for each candidates is what sets this one apart. The pollsters asked specifically, could you see yourself supporting this person? As a prospective respondent, what that translates into is not a case of asking me who I would vote for. It’s a hypothetical question as to whether or not I would jump ship if that person wound up being the nominee. I could take our last Hot Air survey here and come up with essentially the same result. When we asked you guys who your first pick would be, only a relative handful picked Rubio. But if he wound up winning the nomination and we asked how many of you would show up and vote for him anyway rather than giving Hillary a pass, I’m fairly sure the numbers would be a lot higher.
But the other interesting number is the feature of Joyner’s article, though it may come as nothing more than a footnote to regular readers here. Chris Christie may indeed have collapsed.
The hot air remains, but the balloon is no longer aloft. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of several Republicans aspiring to be the 45th U.S. president, has been dealt a harsh verdict by his party’s electorate: He is no longer a viable candidate.
Presented with a list of 14 possible candidates for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, Republican primary voters placed Mr. Christie next to last. Fully 57% of Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll respondents say they can’t support him. Only Donald Trump (at 74%) has united more Republicans in a negative way.
Christie may not have the same name recognition as Hillary Clinton, but the Left side media has been working overtime for more than a year to make sure he gets close to it. Nearly everyone knows his name and the media has been quite effective in defining him long before he ever attempted to define himself. Conservatives in the base already didn’t much care for him on a variety of fronts, but the rest of the nation got to know him through the bridge story. If you’ve already managed to ring up a number like 57% saying they could never see themselves supporting you, that’s probably too big of a gap to close.
Yes, all this comes with the usual caveat about there being a long way to go, but the Likely GOP Nominee is finally looking like he’s likely to just stay in New Jersey.
We have to keep Christie in to split the establishment vote for a change.
Strikes me as complete garbage from start to finish. Polls? [spit!] It’s fakery pure and simple.
I’m interested in seeing Ted Cruz at the top of that list. If every Freeper sent him $5.00, we might could get hime there—LOL!
Rubio, Walker, Huck, Jeb and Rand Paul
Walker is the only one who has changed his mind on the invasion masked as immigration.
The rest are for “Comprehensively Screwing Americans Out Of Their Country”.
Don’t vote for amnesty unless you want to lose your country.
Rand Paul, Christie and Jeb need to occupy the GOPe’s radar while we railroad them with a conservative.
He doubles down on it every chance he gets. He CAN'T back off now, or he will look like a committed, certified fool. Hang tough, Jeb.
His brother waited until he was out of office to tell me I'm a bloviator (whatever that is, I doubt it's a compliment). At least this clown wants me to know ahead of time what I'm getting if I support him.
Comparing Bush to clinton, which one would be considered the echo?
I suspect that if y’all ask your friends who Marco Rubio is that they may not know who you’re talking about. And that response would probably apply to many people on list in OP.
Next week, Huntsman. Then Bowell. Then Gram.
At some point Cruz announces and it’s over.
Only Walker, Cruz, and Sarah Palin, if she chooses to run, have listened to the base, denounced their past statements, and have pledged to make border security a top priority.
Also, even though Walker is on record saying he supported amnesty, he never pushed for it. Never signed or proposed any pro-illegal legislation.
Cruz, Walker, and Palin are the only GOP candidates I trust for securing the border. If one of these three aren't the nominee, I'm staying home.
The poll was about “who could you support?”, NOT “who is your first choice”. Among the candidates Walker has the smallest “could not support” while Cruz is almost as much negative as positive.
No.
I agree the foreign invasion of our country IS the major issue of our time.
Chris Christie is toast...spread with lard.
If Cruz & Walker both stay in the race for a long time, and Bush is the only RINO remaining he will win nomination. Divide & Conquer! Repeat of 2012, 2008, 2004.
yours is the correct way to look at this poll.
If you want to know who the current Republican frontrunner is, just observe whose high school behavior the MSM are looking into.
Big negatives for the Donald.
Big negatives for the Donald.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.