The political pundits have been giving their opinion of the winners and losers in last Thursday's GOP presidential debate. But their opinions don't necessarily coincide with the opinions of the GOP base.
Here is the result of a new Gravis Marketing / One America Poll. It was taken immediately following the debate on August 6th of 904 registered Republican voters nationwide, and has a margin of error of 3 points.
According to these voters, the big winner was Ben Carson. He not only garnered the most votes as the debate winner (22%), but 80% of the respondents said the debate gave them a more favorable opinion of Carson (while only 9% said it gave them a more unfavorable opinion). Marco Rubio also seems to have done himself some good in the debate -- with 13% saying he won it, and 68% saying it gave them a more favorable opinion of him.
Who were the biggest losers of the night? Well, race leader Donald Trump doesn't seem to have helped his cause very much. While 19% said he won the debate, an even larger 30% said he lost it -- and 45% said it gave them a more unfavorable opinion of him, while only 36% said it gave them a more favorable opinion.
But the biggest loser of the night was Rand Paul. Only 3% thought he won the debate, while 34% thought he lost it (more than any other candidate) -- and 67% said they have a more unfavorable opinion of him after the debate. Chris Christie also didn't seem to do very well, being the only candidate (besides Trump and Paul) to have more saying he lost the debate than won it.
The other candidates neither hurt nor helped themselves, including Bush and Walker.
You are the man! I was just looking for this data and I did not find it. The results are interesting. My father told me that he was most impressed with Carson. I told him that Carson was a creationist and my father said, "You ruined my day." And he also really disliked Rand Paul -- because you can't be a real man without wanting to go to war all the time. (I didn't ask him why, but I assume that was the takeaway.) I'm fascinated with the way that candidates like Carson appeal to conservatives. Ultimately, I believe it is all about saying that racism is over. Not only does the candidate explicitly tell them that racism is over, but supporting a non-white candidate makes them feel like racism is over. Of course, at least one of my recent commenters would claim that I am a racist because I have now brought up Carson's race. Because we are all supposed to be like Stephen Colbert and not see race.
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch the debate, so I was mildly surprised to see Carson was the big winner. Think he might be the next GOP "flavor of the month"?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but I figure he will be a flavor of the month at some point. The Republicans claimed they weren't going to repeat 2012, but it certainly looks like they are. That's what happens when you talk about wanting to change but refuse to actually change.
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