Poll: Biden fares as well as Clinton against GOP in swing states

Vice President Biden matches up as well or better than Hillary Clinton against top 2016 Republicans in three swing states, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Thursday morning that’s certain to fuel speculation of the former six-term senator entering the White House race.

Former Secretary of State Clinton is still the front-runner for Democratic primary voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and real estate mogul Donald Trump leads among the GOP, the survey says, but they have the worst favorability ratings and trustworthiness scores of the featured candidates.

{mosads}Former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio both top Clinton in general-election match-ups in their home state of Florida, Quinnipiac reports, as does Trump. Rubio is the only one of the three who currently beats Clinton in a head-to-head matchup in Ohio, while both and he and Bush lead her in Pennsylvania.

Quinnipiac points out that no presidential candidate since 1960 has taken the White House without winning two of those three states.

“Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers are like a leaky faucet: drip … drip … drip,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, in a statement. “In Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania she averages a negative 37 – 55 percent favorability. Donald Trump is in the same leaky boat, averaging a negative 34 – 53 percent favorability.”

Biden, however, who has given no indication he’ll be running in 2016, has trust and favorability numbers above water in all three states.

In Florida and Pennsylvania, the vice president loses to Bush and Rubio in general-election match-ups, but bests Trump. In Ohio, he beats all three.

“Vice President Joseph Biden, who is spending his time in seclusion, contemplating whether to take on Secretary Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries for president, has some new information to consider,” Brown said.

As the controversy over Clinton’s private email server has dragged on and impacted her polling numbers, rumors have flown that Biden might launch his second White House bid, but he has so far been mum on the subject.

The survey involved 3,274 voters — more than 1,000 in each state — and was conducted from Aug. 7 to 18.