Keller: New NH Primary Poll Is Good News For Biden
BOSTON (CBS) - With a little more than six months to go until the New Hampshire primary, a new Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll finds Joe Biden still holding a modest lead over Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren among likely NH primary voters.
It's been a bumpy summer for Biden, his large lead shrinking amid some shaky debate performances.
But the fine print of this latest poll has got to leave the Biden campaign feeling good about where they stand in the crucial first-in-the-nation primary.
He stammered and stumbled at times through two debates, and in this new survey a solid plurality of voters thought Biden did worse than expected. But that's a rare down note in a poll full of good news for the early frontrunner.
Although Biden's overall lead over Sanders is slight, with Warren in hot pursuit, the former vice president is a solid leader in three crucial voter categories:
* He holds a double-digit lead among self-described moderates over Sanders, and while 45% of this voter pool says they're liberals, 40% claim to be moderates;
* Among the most reliable voters of all, people over 65, Biden mops up with 28% to 15% for Warren and Sanders;
* And while labor households are just 17% of the pool, these reliable voters are strongly for Biden, with more than double the support of his closest competitors.
While Sanders and Warren compete for the support of left-leaning voters, Biden seems largely uncontested in those and other more-centrist categories.
And the best news of all for Biden is that his underwhelming debate performances haven't seemed to damage his core argument.
Asked what's more important, choosing a nominee who reflects your values and priorities or one who can defeat President Trump, beating Trump is the runaway winner, 58 to 36%.
In this poll, and in many others, more voters think Biden is the candidate who can pull that off.
Anything is possible but it's hard to believe either of the two senators from neighboring states, Sanders and Warren, will melt down completely. And if they split the liberal vote in New Hampshire, Biden stands to be the big beneficiary.
One other note - Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, who has campaigned often in New Hampshire and whose district borders the state, didn't win support from a single respondent to this poll.