A new CNN/ORC poll shows that Hillary Clinton's lead for the Democrat presidential nomination has dropped to just 10 points over Bernie Sanders and her lead over potential GOP nominees has "vanished,"
CNN reports:
The new poll finds Clinton with 37% support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, down 10 points since August, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 27% and Vice President Joe Biden at 20%. Sanders' support is about the same as it was in August, making Biden the only candidate to post significant gains in the last month. His support is up 6 points in the last month as he weighs making a run for the presidency.
One of the main reasons Hillary's numbers are dropping: she is losing support from women voters.
Clinton's advantage among women has disappeared in matchups against Bush and Carson. Facing Trump, Clinton still carries women by a large, though tighter, margin. In August, 60% of women favored Clinton to 37% for Trump, but that's narrowed slightly to 55% Clinton, 41% Trump now. Clinton's advantage among women against Trump is fueled by independent women, despite that group shifting away from Clinton in the head-to-head against Bush.
Worse yet for Hillary, the poll shows that Vice President Joe Biden outperforms Hillary in a general election horse race. CNN found that Biden beats Trump by 10 points (54/44) and Bush by 8 points (52/44) and trails Carson by 3 points (50/47).
The reason Biden is performing better than Clinton is, again, her falling support among women.
Biden's advantages against Bush and Trump rest on the same kind of gender gap that Clinton appears to have lost: Biden leads Bush by 16 points among women while tying him among men, he tops Trump by 26 points among women while trailing him by 7 among men, and he leads Carson by 5 among women while trailing by 10 among men.
And if that bad news wasn't enough, Democrats' enthusiasm for Clinton is also disappearing, plummeting from 60% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters saying they were enthusiastic about her in April to just 43% who feel that way now.
It looks like a good time for Biden to jump into the race.
