Paul Ryan Is Popular in Iowa, but Not Hillary Clinton Popular
For some reason the Des-Moines Register wants to know how people feel about potential 2016 presidential candidates despite the fact that the election is three years away.
.For some reason the Des-Moines Register wants to know how people feel about potential 2016 presidential candidates despite the fact that the election is three years away.
The paper found that Paul Ryan is "wildly popular" in Iowa among adults polled about their way-too-early Presidential predictions. Out of a pool of ten potential Republican candidates, the former member of the 2012 Republican ticket is for some reason a "surprising choice," according to the Register. What's actually surprising is that well-trodden long shots like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, for instance, scored much higher than plucky upstart, Ted Cruz.
Mr. Cruz tied with Scott Walker and Marco Rubio as the least liked candidates among all Republicans polled. "Cruz, a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, has the highest negatives of the bottom three on the GOP popularity scale," the Register notes. Many admitted not knowing enough about Cruz to even have an opinion.
If someone like Cruz or Walker can get a "grassroots army" behind them, then poll results might be much different. Remember when Michele Bachman won the Ames Straw Poll in 2011, when it was traditionally a reliable bellwether for the Republican primaries? Let's never, ever let Iowa live that down because we all know how that turned out.
The looming Republican primary rumble really doesn't matter because they'll all lose to Hillary Clinton anyway. She's so popular that if an election was called for tomorrow, Clinton would be in "a position of strength in Iowa just short of that of an incumbent president," the Register says.
And, of course, it's too early to tell what might happen over the next three years. So many things can happen — triumphs, scandals and flubs —popularity will fluxuate so much before election day that polling people now, especially in Iowa, makes no sense. Hey, let's do polls about the midterm elections. Those are next year!