Republicans Want Trump, And If Not Him, Then Maybe Trump Would Do

Trump/Trump 2016!

How much do Republican primary voters love Donald Trump? So much that he didn't only lead the latest CNN/ORC poll, released Tuesday -- the Walking Headcase also led the list of respondents' second choice for president as well. Then again, maybe the results would be different if CNN were polling regular people instead of Orcs. (Elves and Wizards are definitely for Bernie Sanders, while the top response among Hobbits is "Can't talk now, eating.")

The poll found Trump had 24 percent of support among registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. In addition, he also led his GOP rivals as the second choice of those voters with 14 percent.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was trailing as the first choice for President at 13 percent. No other candidates polled at double digits.

It kind of looks like no matter what shit comes out of the man's mouth, there's simply nothing that can get Donald Trump's support among Republican primary voters to drop. Or to increase much past 25 percent, either, which might have some long-term implications.

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The also-mentioned candidates include Ben Carson (9 percent), and Marco Rubio and Scott Walker "tied" at 8 percent, as if polling at this stage in the election cycle meant anything at all, which it (almost) does not. 

The poll also found that respondents considered Trump the best-qualified candidate to handle "ISIS, illegal immigration, the economy and social issues such as abortion and gay marriage," which suggests that at this point, people are simply barking "Trump! Trump, Trump, TRUMP!" at anything a pollster asks. The New York real estate developer was also named Americans' favorite flavor of ice cream, most likely to win the World Series, and preferred method of contraception.

Deep in the nitty-gritty kitty ditties of the poll, however, lurks a statistical detail that may be worth calling some attention to. That would be the answer to this question, asked of all respondents, not only Republicans:

We'd like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people -- or if you have never heard of them.

Donald Trump gets a 35 percent "favorable" rating. Also, too, his "negative" rating is 59 percent -- the highest of all the candidates. But there's almost nobody who hasn't heard of him: a measly 1 percent, compared to 6 percent for "Jeb Bush" or 37 percent for "Scott Walker." (Poor Walker -- like John Kasich and Carly Fiorina, his "never heard of" percentage is higher than either his positive or negative ratings.) So while Republicans love Trump, there's a pretty significant portion of Americans who still can't stand the man.

Maybe he needs to be on TV more, so people can get to know him.

[ TPM / CNN-ORC Poll / NPR ]