Hillary Clinton's national lead over Donald Trump has been cut by more than half to single digits heading into Monday night's first presidential debate, according to the latest McClatchy-Marist poll released Friday.
The results:
- Clinton: 45 percent;
- Trump: 39 percent;
- Libertarian Gary Johnson: 10 percent;
- Green Party's Jill Stein: 4 percent.
Clinton held a 15-point advantage in the last McClatchy-Marist poll in August.
Of two other national polls released earlier this week, one showed Clinton with a 6-point lead while the other had Trump with a 5-point lead.
According to this survey, Clinton's strengths are the issues but her weaknesses are in the qualities.
The poll found that voters give her the edge on all the important issues:
- Immigration: Clinton 54 percent, Trump 41 percent;
- Creating jobs: Clinton 49, Trump 43 percent;
- Trade: Clinton 52 percent, Trump 42 percent;
- Terrorism: Clinton 52 percent, Trump 41 percent.
However, just 40 percent have a favorable opinion of Clinton and only 36 percent think she's honest and trustworthy, according to the poll.
"When it comes to specific areas of public policy, she seems to dominate those," Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion said. "When it comes to the qualities of a candidate she has some convincing to do."
Further, 43 percent say Trump shares their values more than Clinton (41 percent).
Trump and Clinton square off in their first debate Monday night at Hofstra University.
This survey of 1,298 adults was conducted Sept. 15-20 by The Marist Poll, and the results are within plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
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