Fact Check: Hillary beating them higher?
Posted: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 5:39 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
There have been some fact checks already on last night's debate, but here's another. Last night, Clinton said the following: "...[L]et me just get in here, because there are a lot of polls showing that I'm beating them higher than anybody else. I don't think that has -- I don't think, frankly, that has much to recommend this far from an election."
That came following John Edwards citing that he's the only one to beat John McCain in a CNN poll, which, by the way, as we pointed out last night, is more than a month old. (It was conducted Dec. 6-9.)
But what is behind Clinton's claim that she's "Beating them higher than anybody else?" "A lot of polls?" What polls are they citing? Here are the most recent reliable ones that rebut that claim.
USA Today/Gallup (Jan. 10-12): Clinton does beat Huckabee 51-45, but loses to McCain 50-47. Obama, though, beats Huckabee by a WIDER margin, 53-43, but does lose to McCain 50-45.
Diageo/Hotline (Jan. 10-12): Obama BEATS McCain 43-42 and Clinton loses 48-45. And Obama down the line beats Huckabee, Romney and Giuliani by wider margins than Clinton.
Reuters/Zogby (Jan. 10-11): McCain beats Clinton 47-42. Clinton beats the other Republicans, BUT Obama beats them by wider margins. And even though McCain beats him also, it's by a narrower margin than he beats Clinton, 45-53.