A new Quinnipiac poll released Thursday found that Vice President Joe Biden, who is still mulling over whether to enter the 2016 presidential race, performs better than Hillary Clinton when matched up head-to-head against leading GOP contenders. Biden also has better favorability ratings than any other candidate, Republican or Democrat.
Biden beat Republican front-runner Donald Trump by eight percentage points, 48 percent to 40 percent; former Florida Governor Jeb Bush by six points, 45 percent to 39 percent; and Florida Senator Marco Rubio by three points, 44 percent to 41 percent.
Compare that to Clinton, who only beats Trump by four points, 45 percent to 41 percent; Bush by two points, 42 percent to 40 percent; and Rubio by one point, 44 percent to 43 percent.
Bernie Sanders actually performed better against Bush than Clinton did, leading him by 4 points, 43 percent to 39 percent. The Vermont democratic socialist led Trump by 3 points, 44 percent to 41 percent, and trailed Rubio by 1 point, 41 percent to 40 percent.
As for favorability ratings, 48 percent said they view Biden favorably, while 39 percent said they view him unfavorably. Clinton, on the other hand, was only viewed favorably by 39 percent, with 51 percent saying they have unfavorable views of the former secretary of state. Sanders had a positive 32 percent/28 percent favorable/unfavorable split.
Rubio had a 41 percent/27 percent split, Carson a 35 percent/15 percent split and Trump a 36 percent/54 percent split.
Clinton still came out on top of the Democratic pack, though, with 45 percent support from left-leaning voters, but her lead over Sanders has slipped by 10 points. Sanders has 22 percent and Biden came in third with 18 percent.
On the Republican side, Trump still holds a commanding lead, with 28 percent of Republican support. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson follows with 12 percent, and Bush, Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tied in third place with 7 percent each.
After months in the spotlight for her exclusive use of a private email system during her tenure as secretary of state, 61 percent now say Clinton is not honest or trustworthy. When respondents were asked what they thought of Clinton, the word" liar" came to mind most often, followed by "dishonest" and "untrustworthy." The word voters most associated with Trump was "arrogant" followed by "blowhard" and "idiot." For Bush, it was "Bush," "family" and "honest."
The survey, which will be among those used to determine eligibility for next month's CNN Republican debate, was conducted from Aug. 20-25 with 1,563 registered voters nationwide, including 666 Republicans and 647 Democrats. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
