A new poll from The New York Times and CBS News finds that, surprisingly, Democrats are more unified now in May 2016 than we were in May 2008.
… Democratic resistance is less widespread than it was in the 2008 primary. While 72 percent of Mr. Sanders’s supporters say they would vote for Mrs. Clinton this fall, a Times/CBS News survey taken in early May 2008 found that only 60 percent of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters said they would vote for Barack Obama in the general election.
I found this to be a surprise based because it certainly was not the impression I had based on rancor and the internecine fighting between the Sanders and Clinton supports here and elsewhere on the Internet.
Republicans will, as they always do, back their presidential candidate and their voters are expecting their party’s leadership to do the same.
Eight in 10 Republican voters say their leaders should support Mr. Trump even if they disagree with him on important issues. And unfavorable views toward Mr. Trump among Republican voters have plummeted 15 percentage points since last month; 21 percent now express an unfavorable view of him, down from 36 percent in April.
This year’s presidential election is going to be fought largely upon tribal lines. I think that facts, qualifications, and past “rules” of presidential politics are not going to hold fast in 2016. Party loyalty and candidate personality will, for many voters, decide whom they choose,
Yet many of the party’s rank-and-file voters think that while Mr. Trump may be imperfect, the time has come to rally to their unlikely standard-bearer — if only to keep Mrs. Clinton out of the White House.
The brightest spots for Sec. Clinton in the poll are she is seen by 70 percent of the respondents as having the “right kind of temperament” to be president. Only 27 percent of those polled thought Trump was suited to be president. She is also helped by President Obama’s increasing approval rating. “Fifty percent of Americans now approve of President Obama’s job performance, his highest rating in more than three years.”
Clinton polled slightly higher (37 percent) than Trump (31 percent) as sharing the same values as those poled. Both Clinton (32 percent) and Trump (31 percent) are nearly equivalent in those polled view of being “honest and trustworthy” and their leadership qualities with Clinton at 54 percent and Trump at 55 percent.