Surges

Biden surges in new Bloomberg poll

By Nick Gass

Vice President Joe Biden surged in a new national Bloomberg Politics poll of Democratic voters and independent voters leaning toward the Democratic Party released Wednesday morning, even though he has not announced his intentions for the presidency.

Hillary Clinton earned a plurality of 33 percent, followed by Biden at 25 percent and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 24 percent. Other candidates are polling within the margin of error.

Biden led the field in terms of net favorability, polling at 80 percent to 14 percent, compared with Clinton's 70 percent to 25 percent and Sanders' 56 percent to 9 percent. More than a third of Democrats and Democratic leaners (35 percent) are not sure what they think of Sanders.

Of the candidates currently in the race, Democratic voters are most skeptical about realistically seeing Donald Trump as president — just 29 percent said yes, while 69 percent said they could not envision the billionaire businessman in the Oval Office. By comparison, 47 percent said they could realistically see Clinton as president, but 52 percent said they could not.

A plurality of voters said they want Biden to run, at 47 percent, while 37 percent want the veep to stay out and 15 percent are not sure.

For his part, Biden has not committed one way or another.

"We’re just not there yet and may not get there in time to make it feasible to be able to run and succeed because there are certain windows that will close. But if that’s it, that’s it. But it’s not like I can rush it. It’s not like it either happens or it doesn’t happen. I know that’s not satisfying to anybody, but people who have been there, I know they understand," he said in a recent interview of his family's decision-making process on a potential run.

The poll was conducted Sept. 18-21 by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, surveying 375 Democrats and Democratic leaners, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.