A new Fox News poll shows Hillary Clinton losing six different matchups with prospective GOP rivals in the 2016 presidential race. Fortunately for her, MSNBC Hardball guest host Alex Wagner this evening completely ignored the alarming news by picking up a Washington Post poll statistic showing Hillary with a stronger approval rating than her GOP rivals on the issue of combating terrorism.
As Kyle Balluck of The Hill noted:
Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) would do best against Clinton, 50 to 42 percent, pollsters found.
Billionaire Donald Trump, retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would also win hypothetical elections, according to the new poll, taken after more than 100 people were killed and more than 300 others injured in a wave of terrorist attacks in Paris.Clinton and former businesswoman Carly Fiorina would tie with 42 percent each.
Alex Wagner on @hardball hyped this poll, but not Fox News one showing Hillary losing to 6 GOP rivals. pic.twitter.com/Foxq56Fwnm
— Ken Shepherd (@KenShepherd) November 24, 2015
For her part, MSNBC's Wagner elected to focus on a brand-new Washington Post poll which shows Clinton more trusted than her GOP rivals on the issue of handling terrorism. That poll was formally released this morning, but you'll notice that question number one was "held for release" at a further date; as it stands there appears to have been no question on this poll asking voters whom they'd back in an election were it held today.
What's more, the polling sample in the Post poll is a plus-10 Democratic skew: 33 percent self-identifying as Democrats, 23 as Republicans, 36 as independents, other and no-opinion each at 4 percent. That surely has something to do with the pro-Hillary skew on the terrorism question.
