Donald Trump has not only retaken the lead on the PPD average of polls conducted after the Republican National Convention, but also improved on key indicators. That latter finding represents a 6-point convention bounce for Trump, which are traditionally measured in two-way matchups. “The convention/VP bumps will have faded and we’ll see the baseline for the fall”.
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The Clinton camp plans to reinforce that theme in Philadelphia with surrogates who they think have greater credibility and stature than the national security speakers at the Republican convention, most of whom disagreed with Trump’s national security policies anyway.
At an afternoon rally, Clinton said the Democratic convention would offer a more hopeful, positive vision of the country’s future than Trump’s “dark, divisive, dangerous” campaign presented last week at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. If Donald Trump is selling strength, Hillary Clinton will be selling steadiness in uncertain times.
The poll also reflects a sharpening of the education divide among whites that has been prevalent throughout the campaign.
Trump’s boost comes as he asserts a commanding lead among white voters without a college degree, climbing to 62 percent – up 11 points from last week.
In another Tweet, Trump says “bad judgment was on display” by DNC officials who criticized Clinton’s primary rival Bernie Sanders.
A majority of voters also (52%) say the NY businessman-dubbed the “working class billionaire” who said in his speech “I am your voice”-is running for president for the good of the country, rather than personal gain”. He’s increased the share who call him honest and trustworthy (from 38% to 43%), and who would be proud to have him as president (from 32% to 39%). The number of Americans who say they would be proud to have him be president is up seven points to 39 percent and now 46 percent of Americans say he’s in touch with their problems in daily life.
It was also the biggest post-convention jump in CNN polls since 2000.
Clinton’s ratings on these same measures took a hit, though in most cases her drop-off was not quite as large as Trump’s gain. Although some time was devoted to talking about Trump the person on the final night, Cleveland witnessed a blistering series of attacks on Clinton, with the convention rhetoric sinking to historically low levels. Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) said the Republican convention spent too much time attacking Democrats, and 18% called Trump’s speech “terrible”, the highest by far since CNN started began the question in 1996. Two weeks ago, poll respondents, by 53 percent to 41 percent, said they expected Clinton to win the presidency. Tim Kaine, a moderate Democrat from Virginia, as her running mate. However, even before the convention, voters’ views on the two candidates-though still weak on both accounts-decidedly turned against Mrs. Clinton. Despite all the time that she has spent on the national stage, many voters still don’t seem to feel they have a good grasp of who she is. Post convention bounces are common-though not in the most recently released CNN Opinion Research Poll-but the significant improvement the Republican nominee has experienced on image and competence issues, are not.
Hillary’s favorables have hit their nadir in the CNN series at 39/55 (41/55 among registered voters).
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“They laid out very clearly and forcefully the question they want to litigate in this election”, said Geoff Garin, pollster for the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA, during a panel in Philadelphia.
