Every week in 2016, HeadCount will throw a short update your way on the Presidential campaign named “The Road to 2016.” Here’s the second installment:
Republicans:
Ted Cruz has had a week most of us would envy. Despite the release of this awkward piece about Cruz and his family, the Texas Senator has thoroughly overtaken Donald Trump in one of Iowa’s most trusted polls. Nationally Trump remains in decent shape, maintaining a 13% lead over Cruz in the RealClearPolitics polling averages and a 27 point lead in the most recent one.
How his proposal to keep all foreign Muslims from entering the United States will impact his popularity remains to be seen. But CBS President Les Moonves said one thing everyone already knew — that Trump is great for the media business.
There is some slight and possibly irrelevant motion at the bottom of the polls in the Republican race as well. Despite not hitting the baseline qualifications for tomorrow’s primetime CNN debate, executives at the cable company have decided to allow Rand Paul to join the main stage. After brief turn at the “kids table debate” New Jersey Governor and Bruce Springsteen fanatic Chris Christie will also be at the prime time debate, now that he’s jumped into second place in some New Hampshire polls and gotten the endorsement of the state’s largest newspaper.
Democrats:
I don’t know exactly how to say this, but as fascinating as the Republican primary has been, the Democratic one has been equally boring. My personal boredom aside, Hillary Clinton maintains a 20+ point lead over Bernie Sanders in national polls, and the Democrats continue to hold their debates at times when the fewest possible people will watch.
Big news came out of Paris this weekend, as a final draft of a climate deal was accepted by the world’s most powerful nations. Hillary applauded the deal which calls for halting average warming at no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial temperatures while Bernie Sanders felt the deal did not go far enough.
On the state level, not much is happening in polls.; if nothing changes, it looks as if Ms. Clinton will win the Iowa Caucuses while Sanders has an edge in thefirst primary in NH, in part thanks to having represented neighboring Vermont for so long.
Third Parties Candidates:
Green Party standard bearer Jill Stein came out very critical of the Paris agreements, saying the “Voluntary, unenforceable pledges being produced are entirely insufficient to prevent catastrophic global climate change.”