Poll: Against Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump Would Get 'Schlonged'

By Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone

23 December 15

A new national poll finds Sanders would beat Trump if they went head-to-head in the general election

ernie Sanders would beat Donald Trump 51-38 in a general-election match-up, according to the latest poll from Quinnipiac University. Or — to put it in the course vernacular that Trump introduced to America this week — the billionaire would get "schlonged" by the democratic socialist.

"Sen. Bernie Sanders hammers him," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll. Hillary Clinton, the poll suggests, would also put Trump in his place — "Hillary Clinton tops him," added Malloy — though by a more modest 47-40.

That wasn't the only bad news for Trump, and by extension the GOP, to come out of the national poll: 61 percent of Americans say the Republican frontrunner "does not share their values," 58 percent believe he "is not honest and trustworthy,"and 57 percent say he "does not care about their needs and problems."

Most striking is the disconnect between GOP voters and the rest of the electorate of Trump's viability as a general-election candidate. Fully 70 percent of GOP voters are convinced Trump would have a good chance of winning in November 2016. Just 41 percent of Americans at large hold the same view, with a majority (51 percent) holding that Trump "does not have a good chance of winning."

In the race for the Republican nomination, the poll shows Trump still leading a divided field. With 28 percent support, Trump bests Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 4 points, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio by 14 points. The poll finds that both Cruz and Rubio would prove more formidable general-election competitors. Against either Clinton or Sanders, both Cruz and Rubio make the 2016 election, effectively, a tossup.