In a Poll, Obama Would Lose to Romney Who Would Lose to Hillary

According to a CNN/ORC poll, if President Obama and Mitt Romney were on the ballot for president today, Romney would win by nine points. From CNN:

...if the 2012 election were somehow held again, Romney would capture 53% of the popular vote, with the President at 44%. Obama beat Romney 51%-47% in the popular vote in the 2012 contest. And he won the all-important Electoral College by a wider margin, 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

This is an increase from the 49-45 percent edge Romney held over Obama in polling conducted last November.

While we're into speculative navel-gazing, flawed though it may be, put speculative 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton into the mix and you've got a different outcome:

 So what, if anything, does this prove? 

The responses were mixed:

Something useful to be taken from all this has to do with the 2016 Republican presidential field, which appears to be anyone's game at this (very, very early) point: 

Thirteen percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they'd likely back Christie, with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential candidate, each at 12%. Perry – who ran for the White House last time around – and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin – the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee – are both at 11%.

Christie and Perry have each jumped five percentage points from CNN's last Republican nomination poll, which was conducted in June.

 Not far behind them are Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/07/in-a-poll-obama-would-lose-to-romney-who-would-lose-to-hillary/375120/

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