Some interesting matchups came out from Fox today, and went up on RCP:
McCain v Clinton: McCain 47, Clinton 42, Undec. 12
McCain v Obama: McCain 44, Obama 40, Undec. 17
Huckabee v Clinton: Huckabee 38, Clinton 47, Undec. 15
Huckabee v Obama: Huckabee 35, Obama 44. Uncec. 21
If this set is accurate (there seems to be a split in the Huckabee v Dem matchups; one group shows him on par with McCain and Rudy, while another set shows him lagging them badly in matchups), then we can draw two conclusions:
-Obama makes a lot of people uneasy
-So does Mike Huckabee
Simply put, Huckabee does 9 points worse than McCain in the same circumstances (47-38=9; 44-35=9). However, Obama simultaneously does 2-3 points worse than Clinton. Ultimately, this probably means that people are just uncertain about Huck and Obama (Huckabee being a brand-new face to a lot of people, and Obama still having at least slightly worse name recognition than Clinton…and not helped by a few high-profile flubs). However, it is worth noting that Hillary and Obama both get larger shares of the vote against Huck than against McCain…at least suggesting that there’s something that puts people off about him.
If accurate, this isn’t good for Huckabee. With that said, however, the polls seem to be split on how well he matches up. It is also worth noting that Rudy and McCain have generally done better in matchups than have Romney, Thompson, or (now) Huckabee, and that McCain has done better than Rudy much of the time (though those two have often been within a point or two of eachother in matchups).
Tags: Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Matchups, Mike Huckabee, Polls, Republican Primary, Rudy Guliani
