Joe Biden would be a better general election candidate for the Democratic Party than Hillary Clinton according to a new poll released by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.
In the poll, Biden did significantly better than Clinton in general election matchups against all four Republican candidates measured: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump. The current vice-president won handily in all four head-to-head matchups, with his closest competition being Fiorina. Biden led the former Hewlett Packard chief executive by a margin of 47-41.
In contrast, Clinton was in dead heats against three of the four candidates. She trailed Carson and Fiorina by one point and had a narrow, one-point lead over Bush. The only Republican whom Clinton led by a significant margin was businessman Donald Trump. The poll also measured how Bernie Sanders would fare against Trump in a general election. He would lead the real-estate mogul by 16 points, more than Clinton who had only a 10-point lead but less than Biden’s lead of 20 points.
The poll also showed Clinton with her smallest lead among Democratic primary voters nationally so far. With Biden in the race, the former secretary of state’s lead over Senator Bernie Sanders dwindled to 42%-35%, with the vice-president at 17%. Even without Biden in the race, Clinton’s lead over Sanders increased to 53%-38%. However, that is still markedly lower than her lead in previous polls. In a June poll of Democratic voters, she led the Vermont senator by 75% to 15%.
On the Republican side, Trump maintained his status as Republican frontrunner but he led retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson by a slim margin of 21% to 20%. Florida senator Marco Rubio was tied for third with Carly Fiorina at 11%.
