Poll: Clinton Ties Carson in '16 Matchup, but Tops Other GOP Candidates

One year out before the 2016 general election, Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson are tied in a hypothetical matchup, but Clinton leads three other major Republican candidates, according to brand-new numbers from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  Clinton is ahead of Republican Donald Trump by eight points among registered voters, 50 percent to 42 percent. She leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by four points, 47 percent to 43 percent. And Clinton holds a three-point advantage over Sen. Marco Rubio, 47 percent to 44 percent, though that's well within the poll's margin of error of plus-minus 3.4 percentage points. But against Ben Carson, who is now leading the GOP horserace in the NBC/WSJ poll, Clinton finds herself in a tied contest, 47 percent to 47 percent. The reason why Carson performs better versus Clinton than the rest of the GOP field is due to Carson's standing among independent voters. Carson leads Clinton by 13 points among independents (47 percent to 34 percent). That's compared with Rubio's seven-point lead here (42 percent to 35 percent), Bush's four-point lead (41 percent-37 percent) and Trump's four-point lead (43 percent to 39 percent).