CNN has come out with a new poll where Hillary is once again on top of the Trumpster by five points:
Democrat Hillary Clinton tops Republican Donald Trump by a 47% to 42% margin in the race for the presidency, according to a CNN/ORC Poll released Tuesday, and just 22% of registered voters say their minds could change between now and November.
Even though Hillary is winning, neither candidate is doing very well when it comes to exciting the voters:
When asked whether they would be excited by a Trump or Clinton presidency, fewer than 3-in-10 muster that level of enthusiasm for either. More say they would be afraid (56% if Trump were elected, 46% Clinton) or embarrassed (56% if Trump won, 39% if Clinton did), and just a handful say they would be proud (35% say so about Clinton, 24% Trump). About half (47%) say they would be hopeful if Clinton won, while 44% say so if Trump were to win.
But here’s where it gets worse:
Neither presumptive nominee has wrapped up universal support within their own party. Among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, 51% say the party should nominate Trump, 48% would prefer someone else. On the Democratic side, 55% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners say they’d pick Clinton as their party’s nominee, 43% say they would pick Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. That latter divide is about the same as the split between Obama and Clinton backers in late-June 2008, when 43% said that if Clinton were still running, they’d prefer her as the party’s nominee.
The bad thing for Trump is there is no name on the ‘someone else’. At least for Hillary, once Bernie gets out of the race completely, a good portion of his supporters will begin to rally around her. For Trump there is no one to get out of the race, which means a large portion of the 48% of people who prefer someone else will likely persist until November.
I believe there’s plenty of time to turn this around, but I’m not sure if Trump is capable of doing that with all the baggage he is now carrying.