Why voters like Ben CarsonBy Chris Stirewalt
Published November 04, 2015
FoxNews.com
Why is Ben Carson the single most popular candidate running for president in either party?
As Carson moves into a tie with Donald Trump in the latest Quinnipiac University national Republican primary poll, the retired neurosurgeon is blowing the doors off every candidate – including Hillary Clinton – when it comes to the general electorate.
Carson runs better against Clinton than any GOP contender in hypothetical general election matchup, romping to a 10-point lead. Among the three other top-tier GOP candidates, Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz both defeated Clinton by 5 points and 3 points respectively while Trump trails Clinton by 3 points.
We’re still almost a year out from Election Day, so these matchups are meaningless as predictive properties. But they do reveal the depth of Clinton’s predicament and the remarkable height Carson is obtaining.
Among both general election voters and Republicans, Carson and Rubio are the best liked candidates, though Carly Fiorina also shows appeal in her party and with all voters. But consider this: Carson has a favorability score 34 points higher than Clinton’s.
Americans might vote for a candidate they do not like. Americans might even vote for a candidate they do not trust, but Democrats ought to be more than a little seasick at the thought that their presumptive nominee is 10 points underwater with the national electorate on favorability and 24 points (!) underwater on honesty.
But again, why is Carson the most popular candidate in the country?
To get your answer, consider the least liked candidate in either party: Jeb Bush.
Bush, who has a net favorability rating of negative 33 points, has made personal attacks a hallmark of late. He first attacked Trump, who is the ne plus ultra of character attackers. But Bush has most recently been attacking the character of his onetime protégé, Rubio.
Bush’s attacks on Trump have sometimes been issue-based, but with Rubio, Bush attacks his younger rival as unfit and unready for office, comparing him to President Obama.
That’s not Ronald Reagan hitting Gerald Ford on the Panama Canal or Mitt Romney clubbing Rick Perry over Social Security. This is personal, more in the vein of the hits Romney took from rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum for Romney’s work at Bain Capital, attacks that teed up the ball for Obama in the general election.
Attacks cost favorability for both the attacked and the attacker. It’s like an intentional foul in a football game. It’s only worth the penalty of it keeps the other team from scoring and keeps you in the game.
Trump’s persistent personal attacks have been part of what has left him unable to expand his reach within his party. Bush’s attacks have proven even more costly. He fell 26 points on favorability with the general electorate since Quinnipiac’s September poll and 38 percent just among Republicans.
Team Bush is looking to reboot, but with Bush loyalists pushing hard on Rubio’s spotty personal financial past – one Bush loyalist emailed today calling for Rubio to release a decade of his credit scores – it seems clear that the personal attacks will persist.
Carson’s opponents have mostly avoided attacking him, except, of course, Trump, a move which has plainly backfired. Attacking Carson, a kindly, Christian man with an inspiring life story, is hard to do.
And Carson goes to great pains to avoid saying unkind things about his rivals. Like Cruz and Rubio, Carson looks for ways to praise rather than blame his fellow Republicans. And voters reward them.
The lesson: If you want to fight your intra-party foes, do it on substance not character.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/04/why-voters-like-ben-carson/?intcmp=hplnws
