The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has some good news for New Jersey’s Chris Christie:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) may be the most popular politician in the land.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows 41 percent of Americans view Christie positively, compared to just 12 percent who view him negatively. And he gets equally strong marks from across the political spectrum, with 43 percent of Democrats viewing him favorably.
That 29-point split is the best among any politician studied, including longtime leader and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who is viewed positively by 49 percent and negatively by 31 percent.
(Her numbers, notably, have taken a hit in recent months; in December, she had a 58/28 split.)
As recently as August 2012, Christie was viewed favorably by 18 percent of Americans and unfavorably by the same number. Of course, that was before the Republican National Convention — where Christie delivered the GOP’s keynote address — and Hurricane Sandy, which brought Christie even more into the national spotlight.
Christie’s popularity nationwide seems to increase notwithstanding the fact that he has recently done things that annoy that hard-right wing of the Republican Party. Of course, given the fact that the same poll showed that 41% of those polled have a negative view of The Republican Party that isn’t entirely surprising. Digging deeper into the poll, though, it doesn’t seem as though Christie has hurt himself with Republicans as a whole and he continues to have broad bipartisan appeal.
- 40% of self-identified Republicans view Christie positively, only 16% view him negatively;
- 41% of self-identified Independents view Christie positively, only 9% view him negatively; and,
- 43% of self-identified Democrats view Christie positively, only 10% view him negatively.
So, if I were Chris Christie’s political adviser, I’d tell him to keep doing what he’s doing and ignore the complaints coming from conservatives.
