By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Two new polls out today suggest Chris Christie is still the strongest potential GOP contender heading into the next presidential cycle, Save Jerseyans.
In the Old Dominion, Quinnipiac University’s poll found Christie trailing Clinton by just 1-point, 42% to 41%. Mitt Romney lost Virginia by less than 4-points last time around.
Up in the Granite State, Public Policy Polling (PPP), a Democrat-affiliated firm, finds Christie behind by 4-points, 43% to 39%. Romney dropped New Hampshire by slightly more than 5 1/2-points in November 2012.
The results aren’t too surprising. Christie has consistently performed better than any other named Republican in a head-to-head with the former Secretary of State.
At least in Virginia, President Obama’s blundering foreign policy may play a key role in diminishing popular enthusiasm for another Democrat president (particularly one who was intimately involved in foreign policy decision-making). “President Barack Obama’s job approval in Virginia is dropping into negative territory again with the controversy over what, if anything, the United States should do in Syria almost certainly a major reason,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “As has been the case during his presidency, when the president’s overall approval is underwater, the driving force is independents moving out of his column. In this survey, Virginia independents give him a thumbs down by 20 percentage points. On handling Syria, independents disapprove almost 2-1.”
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