Polling season is upon us — when is it not — and our good friends at Quinnipiac University just released another one May 28 on the Republican horse race and Democratic one-woman race. (Don’t they ever do anything else at Quinnipiac? How about teaching French?)
Short form for the Republican side: nobody’s winning.
There’s a five-way tie. Bush, Carson, Huckabee, Rubio and Walker were all knotted up at 10 percent with Paul at 7 and Cruz at 6. Others straggled behind in the competition to make the top ten for the debates. Fiorina just snuck in at 2. I’m rooting for her to make the cut, because she’s being a great anti-Hillary with energy to spare. This was a registered, not a likely, voter poll and twenty percent of Republicans were undecided.
The “no way José I wouldn’t vote for this creep if you paid me” category went to Donald Trump at 21 percent of Republican voters (hey, I told The Donald what he should be doing years ago — and it wasn’t running for president) with, significantly, Jeb in second place at a hefty 17 percent. Speaking of unwanted heft, maybe that adds some to my Tuesday post urging him to drop out.
Now for the depressing part.Despite the voters polled finding Hillary NOT honest or trustworthy by a whopping 53-39, only Rubio and Paul came within spitting distance of her in a head-to-head. Both of them trailed by 4 points, even though they were regarded as trustworthy by the voters, not her. (Something is definitely wrong with this country.) Not to pick on Jeb, but the former Florida governor trailed Clinton 47-37. Yikes. And he doesn’t have a problem with name recognition, except perhaps with those whack jobs you see on O’Reilly who can’t remember who was buried in Grant’s Tomb. (No, it’s not Joe Biden, although sometimes it seems that way.) Cruz wasn’t so hot either at 48-37. Faring worst of all in a head-to-head was, you guessed it, The Donald (50-32).
OTHER OBSERVATIONS: Dr. Carson can be counted as a surprise being up with the leaders. He should get a boost from this in the seriousness department. Walker and Bush have not yet announced, but I am skeptical that they will get much of a bounce at this point. If so, it will probably be short-lived. It feels as if they’ve been running for months already. I think we can put a fork in Chris Christie (at 4 percent). 2012 one-time frontrunner, my former shooting partner Rick Perry, who announces June 1, has yet to make an impact. Will he? He’s undoubtedly the best marksman running. That’s something. Maybe he’ll join us at Bullets & Bourbon next December.
ANOTHER POSSIBILITY: It may be this horse race will narrow down faster than we expect, but I wouldn’t bet on it, the human ego being what it is. I marvel at the fat cats willing to put their money on some of these people. Why not give it to cancer research?
APROPOS of why Fiorina should be encouraged to stay in, it’s worth remembering that Mitt Romney got well over fifty percent of the white female vote in 2012. If Hillary significantly cuts into that number, it’s good-bye GOP.
SOCIAL NOTE: The Mad Voter, accompanied by a producer and cameraman, will be catching up with Carly and several of the other candidates (Rubio, Carson, Walker, Perry, Graham & Huckabee) at the Joni Ernst “Roast & Ride” in Boone, Iowa on June 5. Can somebody please tell me where that is? And while they’re at it, please inform Senator Ernst that, although I can handle a forty-five, I don’t drive a Harley.
Roger L. Simon – Co-founder and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media – is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and prize-winning novelist. He is covering the election of 2016 at Diary of a Mad Voter.
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