STEVE BENSON

Benson: Taking the pulse of Uncle Sam

Steve Benson
The Republic | azcentral.com

Only the polls knows?

A CNN/ORC survey released shortly after the GOP’s Cleveland convention gave a chortling Donald Trump a post-confab poll bump of 10 percentage points. Although Trump predictably trumpeted the news, in reality, it may be more snooze than news. These kind of follow-the-bouncing-poll balls — conducted this far out from Election Day — aren’t reliable road maps.

For example, in 2008, Sen. John McCain got a post-convention boost that put him in a virtual tie with President Barack Obama.

Seen John hanging out in the Oval Office lately?

To throw mud on the fire (pardon the metaphor mix), although 70 percent of Americans say they don’t regard Hillary Clinton as honest or trustworthy, a Reuters poll released one day after the Democratic gathering in the City of Sisterly Love had her up on Trump by 6 points.

A Suffolk University poll that came out on the first day of the Dem dance showed The Orange Pant Suit ahead of The Orange Hair Ball in the battleground state of Pennsylvania by 9 points.

One stat has remained steady over the last nine presidential elections: Women have voted for the Democratic candidate at higher rates than men.

Moreover, the right-wing Wall Street Journal reports that 75 percent of Latinos polled say they’re  planning to cast their ballot for Clinton.

Will it be enough? In the 1956 presidential campaign, a supporter of the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, gave him this shout out: "Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!"  Stevenson replied, “That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!"

Does Uncle Sam have it right on Clinton? What do you think?