It’s often said that the only candidates who could lose to Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Here’s one indication that it’s more than a wry joke.
The latest Bloomberg Politics national poll asked voters who they’d support in hypothetical matchups between Trump and President Barack Obama, and between Clinton and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.
The result: Obama would clobber Trump and Romney would trounce Clinton.
Obama can’t run for a third term, but if he could he’d pulverise Trump by 12 percentage points, 53 per cent to 41 per cent, according to the poll. Romney would crush Clinton by 10 percentage points.
The survey, conducted Friday night through Sunday, showed Clinton leading Trump by three percentage points. Obama was judged favourably by 54 per cent of respondents, an approval rating that easily beat Clinton’s (46 per cent) or Trump’s (41 per cent). The president couldn’t, however, match the 58-per cent approval rating of his wife, Michelle.
In this October 16, 2012 photo, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, left, and President Barack Obama spar during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Photo: AP
