Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:48 pm
An unprecedented number of major party candidates are running for president. Yet, Americans remain pessimistic about the entire presidential field going into 2016.
An NBC/WSJ poll asked Americans about individual candidates and whether they were optimistic/satisfied or uncertain/pessimistic about the ability of each individual candidate to do a good job as president.
With every candidate, more voters were uncertain or pessimistic than optimistic or satisfied, but of the announced candidates, voters were less pessimistic about Bernie Sanders than any of the other candidates. 43 percent of American voters expressed optimism about a Sanders’ presidency, compared to 50 percent who did not. His net (-7) optimism to pessimism score was better than Hillary Clinton’s (-13) or any of the Republican candidates.
Voters were much more optimistic about both Sanders and Clinton than they were about GOP front-runner Donald Trump (-35), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (-32), former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (-26) or former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (-24). The only Republicans that voters were not deeply pessimistic about were Florida Senator Marco Rubio (-13) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (-8).
Joe Biden, who announced on Wednesday that he was not seeking the presidency, was the one potential candidate who generated slightly more optimism than Sanders. 46 percent of American voters would have viewed a Biden presidency optimistically compared to 52 percent who would have been uncertain or pessimistic.
Americans have become so pessimistic that even the best candidates only inspire tepid optimism. Nevertheless, it is clear that Sanders, and to a slightly lesser extent, Clinton, give Americans more cause for optimism than most of the GOP candidates.
While conservatives are doing their best to scare Americans away from electing a “democratic socialist” named Bernie Sanders, voters are apparently less nervous about Sanders than they are about the other candidates running for president. America’s optimism for Sanders is decidedly cautious. However, voters are far less pessimistic about Sanders’ ability to run the country than they are about Donald Trump or Jeb Bush’s ability to lead the nation.
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