Republicans!

and that sure isn't Hillary.

interesting times.

I'm almost hoping Clinton runs - will be great fun to watch her like it was in '08.

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2013, 03:17 PM - Edit history (1)

1) A poll like this, this early in the game, basically measures name recognition and overall impression (if you're familiar with media or marketing, you'll recognize this as a variation on Q scores). Now, if you grant that (a) most people don't follow politics closely, and (b) Hillary has always been a divisive figure, you can understand that Hillary has a lot of name recognition, but that there are a lot of people with a strong visceral negative impression of her; meanwhile, Christie probably has slightly less name recognition, but engenders significantly less negative feeling in the population as a whole (who mostly know him through the news, where he mostly comes off as a competent governor and straight-shooter; he also comes off as a not-crazy Republican). So, a tie.

2) Alternatively, you have the fact that Hillary is on the right wing of the Democratic party spectrum, and Christie is on the left wing of the GOP spectrum. They are closer together, politically, than any other imaginable Dem-GOP match-up.

3) Alternatively-alternatively, you have the bias in modern presidential politics toward governors. Clinton's going to spend much of 2016 getting beaten up for never having run anything (no, the State Department won't count), first by Schweitzer if he primaries her and then by Christie if he's the GOP nominee, and this may be an unconscious manifestation of that appeal.

Just some thoughts. Whatever the case (or combination of cases) it doesn't surprise me in the least.

Alternative 1 nails it ... though I don't know about the " strong visceral negative impression of(HRC)".

I suspect that christie's "popularity" is mirage that will fade once(if) he actually hits the national scene. He is largely unknown to the vast majority of Non-NJ folks (except that they heard that he did something good during Sandy and he got along with President Obama for about two weeks ... he was "Sandy"-made); but he is disliked by Non-NJ gopers (except for "Mourning" Joey S).

Obama and Democrats. ReThugs have not been held accountable at all for what they deliberately did to obstruct the government, shut it down, sabotage Obamacare, and deny millions of unemployment assistance. They love Chris Christie and do nothing but heap praise on him. No one in the Corporate Media except for Rachel Maddow has covered Christie's latest scandal.

Rethugs are beating Democrats in all of the polls, and yet, we're talking about 2016. Dems will get slaughtered in 2014 and again in 2016 unless we unite and work like never before to get more progressives elected to office.

No. This poll is hardly shocking.

Etc.

The news media takes the obscure "so called facts" and transforms them into what THEY want to hear. I'm a data man. Data and facts NEVER lie. Would it really be a close race? I sincerely doubt it. The GOP is toast. They constantly support the rich working man and screw everyone else. Hey, we won the last 2 elections. Since the last election, they have dug themselves even deeper into the hole, holding this country hostage, and now cutting off 1.3M unemployed. Those are facts. Will we win again in 2016. I'm thinking "Hell YES!!!" It's a no brainer. The GOP has shown their true racist extremism, and it will come bite them in the ass again. Neither candidate has indicated they will run, so, of course, this is nothing more than inaccurate media speculation, that they want everyone to know about. Must be a slow news day.