First Read: 'We Don't Like Our Candidates Very Much' - NBC News

 

by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Voters in the NBC/WSJ poll: "We don't like our candidates very much"

Beyond the horserace numbers, the approval ratings, and opinions about tomorrow's Benghazi committee testimony, maybe the biggest finding in our new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is how the American electorate -- at large -- doesn't care for the 2016 field. Every major candidate in the poll, including non-candidate Joe Biden (at least for now), gets a majority of voters saying they are uncertain/pessimistic about their ability to do a good job as president vs. optimistic/satisfied. According to our pollsters, there is no precedent for that level of negativity for the ENTIRE FIELD in the history of the NBC/WSJ poll on this question. "We don't like our candidates very much," co-pollster Bill McInturff (R) said in summing up the finding here. "There is no single candidate who got a net-positive rating [on this question]. There is simply no precedent for that." The numbers:

• Biden: 46% optimistic/satisfied, 52% uncertain/pessimistic (-6)
• Sanders: 43% optimistic/satisfied, 50% uncertain/pessimistic (-7)
• Carson: 42% optimistic/satisfied, 50% uncertain/pessimistic (-8)
• Clinton: 43% optimistic/satisfied, 56% uncertain/pessimistic (-13)
• Rubio: 39% optimistic/satisfied, 52% uncertain/pessimistic (-13)
• Fiorina: 31% optimistic/satisfied, 55% uncertain/pessimistic (-24)
• Bush: 36% optimistic/satisfied, 62% uncertain/pessimistic (-26)
• Cruz: 29% optimistic/satisfied, 61% uncertain/pessimistic (-32)
• Trump: 32% optimistic/satisfied, 67% uncertain/pessimistic (-35)

Comparing with past winners and losers

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By contrast, here are some of the numbers from past elections (asked of likely voters in October of an election year):

• Bill Clinton (1996): 59% optimistic/satisfied, 40% uncertain/pessimistic (+19)
• George W. Bush (2000): 56% optimistic/satisfied, 43% uncertain/pessimistic (+13)
• Barack Obama (2008): 56% optimistic/satisfied, 43% uncertain/pessimistic (+13)
• Al Gore (2000): 52% optimistic/satisfied, 47% uncertain/pessimistic (+5)
• George W. Bush (2004): 51% optimistic/satisfied, 48% uncertain/pessimistic (+3)
• John Kerry (2004): 48% optimistic/satisfied, 51% uncertain/pessimistic (-3)

Take a look at the fav/unfav scores

The current level of negativity about the entire 2016 field also is reflected in the fav/unfav scores (read: popularity ratings) for the candidates, although some of them have net-positive scores:

• Carson: 38%-24% (+14)
• Biden: 42%-31% (+11)
• Sanders: 38%-27% (+11)
• Rubio: 31%-25% (+6)
• Fiorina: 26%-22% (+4)
• Clinton: 39%-48% (-9)
• Cruz: 21%-34% (-13)
• Bush: 24%-40% (-16)
• Trump: 30%-53% (-23)

First Read: 'We Don't Like Our Candidates Very Much' - NBC News