Sick and tired of hearing about Willard “Mitt” Romney and the 2012 presidential race? Can’t wait until 2016 rolls around? Well, then, Public Policy Polling has just the poll for you! 🙂
The Democratic nomination at this point is Hillary Clinton’s for the taking if she wants it. She has an amazing 86/10 favorability rating with Democratic voters. In a dream field Clinton gets 57% to 14 for Joe Biden, 6% for Elizabeth Warren, 5% for Andrew Cuomo, 3% for Russ Feingold, 2% for Mark Warner, and 1% each for Martin O’Malley and Brian Schweitzer.
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If Clinton didn’t run but Biden did he’d be the leader with 32% to 18% for Cuomo, 8% for Warren, 6% for Feingold, 2% each for O’Malley and Warner, and 1% for Schweitzer. Biden’s favorability is 70/21.
And in Biden and Clintonless field Cuomo leads with 27% to 9% for Warren, 8% for Feingold, 4% each for O’Malley and Warner, and 2% for Schweitzer…
As a Virginia political blogger, what jumped out at me here is the numbers for Mark Warner. First of all, nobody knows who he is, with the vast majority of Democrats having no opinion of him whatsoever (the rest split 11% favorable, 18% unfavorable for Warner). Second, in a field with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, our former governor gets just 2% support. Third, without Hillary in the field, Joe Biden and Andrew Cuomo jump up the rankings, but Warner stays put at 2% support. Finally, with neither Clinton nor Biden in the running, Andrew Cuomo jumps up, as does “someone else/undecided” (to 46%), while Warner barely moves up to 4% support.
Now, obviously, a lot can (and will) change in 4 years, but Mark Warner certainly doesn’t start off in a strong position for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. I wonder if polls like this one might make Warner think again about running for governor of Virginia in 2013?