Poll: Clinton aces debate, but no big boost in overall support

Hillary Clinton did the best job during the first Democratic presidential debate last week, according to a CNN/ORC poll of voters who watched.
Sixty-two percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters polled Oct. 14-17 gave Clinton’s performance the highest marks, while 35% said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., did the best.

But Clinton didn’t see a significant change in her support for the Democratic nomination, according to the poll released Monday. Clinton’s support stands at 45%, up by 3 percentage points from mid-September, and Sanders is at 29%, a rise of 5 points from September. The margin of error for that question, based on responses from 425 registered Democrats, was 5 percentage points.
Vice President Biden, who has not announced whether he plans to run, had a higher favorability rating – 51% — among Americans compared to the other Democratic candidates. But his support for a Democratic primary bid dropped from 22% in mid-September to 18%, while 47% said he should get in compared to 53% in August.
Without Biden in the race, Clinton’s support jumps to 56% and Sanders’ to 33%.
The other candidates on stage for the Oct. 13 debate in Las Vegas barely registered support in the poll. Former Virginia senator Jim Webb had 1%, while former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee registered less than 1%.
Who performed the worst during the debate? Chafee, according to 43% of those polled.
The sampling error for the question on debate performance was 7.5 percentage points.
Another poll released Monday has Clinton beating Sanders by a wider margin nationally. The Monmouth University poll showed Clinton at 48%, up six percentage points since last month, and Sanders at 21%, up from 20%. Biden’s support was at 17%, down from 22% last month.
The poll, conducted from Oct. 15-18, showed Democratic voters are divided on whether the party’s four debates before the Iowa caucuses (two more are scheduled after the opening contests) are sufficient before voting begins in February. Forty-four percent said there will be enough debates while 37% said there won’t.
The sampling error for those questions was 5.3 percentage points.