Jeb Bush's conservative cred is getting conflicting reviews this week in three different polls.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday found Bush at the front of the GOP pack nationally with 23 percent, trailed by Marco Rubio (18 percent), Scott Walker (14 percent) and Rand Paul and Ted Cruz (11 percent each). But that didn't tell the whole story.
Here's a second way to look at Bush in the NBC/WSJ poll: He's struggling with conservatives, big time. Here's a fav/unfav ranking of the five 2016 Republicans we tested among just self-described conservatives:
1. Rubio: 41%-8% (+33)
2. Walker: 31%-4% (+27)
3. Paul: 38%-15% (+23)
4. Cruz: 36%-13% (+23)
5. Bush: 33%-28% (+5)
Meanwhile, the
New York Times/CBS poll found a silver lining for Bush among conservatives Republicans nationally, with 49 percent of them tagging his stances as "about right."
While Mr. Bush has faced questions about whether he is conservative enough to win a Republican primary, only 22 percent of Republican voters said his views were not conservative enough.
But perhaps the best indication of Bush's viability yet came from a
statewide Quinnipiac poll of Iowa's "likely GOP caucus-goers," who are about as conservative as they come. In the Hawkeye State, Bush is getting trounced by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and nearly every other Republican candidate.
1. Walker: 21 percent
2. Paul: 13 percent
3. Rubio: 13 percent
4. Cruz: 12 percent
5. Huckabee: 11 percent
Yep, that's right. Bush didn't even make the top five. In fact, he only garnered five percent support among Iowa Republicans. Since winning Iowa has become
the kiss of death for GOP hopefuls in the last several election cycles, Bush may just be in fairly good stead at the moment, regardless of his relative conservative support or lack thereof.