Imagine, if you will, a 2016 race getting underway. Bursting out of the starting gate primaries are... Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio. Should the Republicans worry? Should Democrats panic? Is Marco Rubio the obvious winner?
...His appeal to Hispanic voters makes him a more viable general election candidate. As of now, however, when he's matched up against Hillary Clinton, Rubio's pull with Hispanics barely nudges the dial. According to a (caveat: very, very early) Quinnipiac poll, 60 percent of Hispanic voters would support Clinton in 2016, compared to a mere 24 percent for Rubio. Chris Christie, who is not Hispanic, pulled in 23 percent of the Hispanic vote to 62 percent for Clinton. So Rubio only improved upon Christie's share of the Hispanic vote by three percentage points, which is not nearly enough to make up for his much weaker support among independents. As it now stands, current party pariah Chris Christie is obviously the GOP's best shot at defeating Clinton. ...Dan Amira, DailyIntel
The immediate merit of that hypothetical is that it eliminates tea partyers from any kind of showing. Unless Christie goes on a figurative tea diet -- which is pretty unlikely both figuratively and in reality.
Hey, as Dan Amira points out, there's always the possibility of a change, by 2016, in how Hispanics view Rubio.
Or Clinton could decide not to run. Ha!, says Amira -- lotsa luck there, Marco...!
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Wait. There's more. And some of these numbers are surprising.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Hillary Clinton tops the presidential 2016 field in hypothetical matchups with Chris Christie, 45% to 37%, Paul Ryan 50 to 38%, and Marco Rubio 50 to 34%.By contrast, Christie would beat Joe Biden 43 to 40%. Biden, however, beats Rubio 45 to 38% and Ryan 45 to 42%. ...viaPoliticalWire
