The 2016 winners and losers of August
This past weekend's new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll of Iowa perfectly captures the presidential candidates who won August and the summer -- and those who didn't. The winners on the
Republican side: Donald Trump (who's in first place in that Iowa poll at 23%) and Ben Carson (second at 18%). The winner on the
Democratic side: Bernie Sanders, who has surged 14 points since May and now trails Hillary Clinton by just seven points in Iowa. The loser of August on the Democratic side? It's Clinton, of course, whose lead in the Hawkeye State has dropped from 41 points to just seven (!!!) in the span of three months. The losers of August on the GOP side: Try Scott Walker (who is now tied for third with Ted Cruz in Iowa -- the state where he was seen as the clear frontrunner), Jeb Bush (who's tied for fifth), and Marco Rubio (ditto). (Our friend Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report
has a similar list of winners and losers; great minds think alike.) What do Trump, Carson, and Sanders all have in common? They're political outsiders who are FAR from your business-as-usual politicians. Indeed, the
Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll finds 62% of GOP Iowa caucus-goers and 60% of Dem caucus-goers saying they're dissatisfied with politicians in general.
He or she who wins August doesn't necessarily win in the end
But keep this in mind: During the last three presidential cycles (2004, 2008, 2012), the winners of August didn't go on to capture the presidential nomination. In 2004, the undisputed winner of the summer was Howard Dean, who ultimately finished third in Iowa and won only his home state of Vermont in the 2004 primaries. In 2008, Hillary Clinton was crushing Barack Obama in the August before the nominating contests, while John McCain was essentially given up for dead during that summer. And in 2012, the August winners were Michele Bachmann (who won the Iowa Straw Poll) and Rick Perry (who soared in the polls after his presidential launch). Now if Trump/Carson/Sanders end winning in February and capture their party's nomination, we'll look back on this August as the turning points for them. But if they don't, they'll join Dean, Hillary, Romney, Rudy, Bachmann, and Perry. One other point: While the Des Moines Register poll is the unquestioned gold standard in Iowa, it widely differs from the other August polling, which found Clinton up
about 20-30 points in the Hawkeye State.
Why everyone needs to pay more attention to Ben Carson
For all of the attention Trump and Sanders have received this summer, it's striking how little coverage the other August winner -- Carson -- has gotten by comparison. That, folks, needs to change ASAP. In the Des Moines Register poll, Carson is tied with Trump when you add up the first and second choices. He also enjoys the highest fav/unfav score among GOP caucus-goers:
- Carson: 79%-8% (+71)
- Walker: 71%-15% (+56)
- Fiorina: 64%-15% (+49)
- Rubio: 67%-20% (+47)
- Jindal: 61%-18% (+43)
- Cruz: 61%-24% (+37)
- Huckabee: 61%-30% (+31)
- Trump: 61%-35% (+26)
- Bush: 45%-50% (-5)
- Paul: 39%-49% (-10)
- Christie: 29%-59% (-30)