Hillary Clinton still on top, but Rand Paul is closing in

Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be surprised. It’s another presidential poll and another victory for her — although the margin isn’t as large as it has been in the past.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University shows Clinton would beat the GOP in Ohio, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) being the closest contender. He trails Clinton by only four percentage points. In the last poll in May, Clinton had the lead by 8 percentage points.

Even as President Barack Obama’s approval rating continues to slide, it’s not having a major effect on his party.

“The bad news for Democrats is that President Barack Obama’s approval rating in Ohio is close to his all-time, all-state low. The good news for the party is that the president doesn’t appear to be hurting the Democrats’ consensus front-runner for 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll.

Secretary Clinton, on the other hand, is almost everyone’s favorite candidate, Brown said. She squeaks past U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and easily defeats each of the other Republicans she is matched against and has a solidly positive favorability rating. Obviously there is a long way to go until 2016, but at this point the political problems the president is encountering are not rubbing off on her.

Clinton has the lead over all the potential GOP candidates, even Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Clinton gets 47 percent of the vote, compared to Kasich’s 40 percent.

Here’s the rest of the breakdown:

  • 46 – 42 percent over Paul;
  • 48 – 37 percent over former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush;
  • 46 – 37 percent over New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie.

Additionally, 52 percent of Ohio voters have a favorable opinion of Clinton.

She also has a huge advantage with women, with her lead against GOP contenders ranging from 20 to 24 percentage points on that category.

This is just another string of polls where Hillary Clinton has come out on top.

Just last week, she had a clean sweep in Florida. Earlier this month, a Gallup poll showed she leads all potential candidates not only in name recognition.

Also, the Clinton bandwagon has gotten so full, some Democratic donors are telling Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to stay out of the race if Clinton runs.

“If Elizabeth called me up and said, ‘I am thinking of running for president,’ I would say, ‘Elizabeth, are you out of your goddamn mind?’ ” said one New York-based donor who has hosted Warren in his living room.

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