On Monday Quinnipiac unveiled the results of a poll that sought to find who voters view as the "hottest" politicians of today. With the poll confirming the popularity of politicians from all over Capitol Hill, including the president, the real question is: will potential candidates' popularity among American voters be enough to pull them to a White House win in the 2016 presidential election?
The way Quinnipiac determined the "hotness" (or popularity) quotient was by asking the respondents their feelings on political leaders that have been in the news. The pollster then said a name and asked the respondent to rate the person using something called the "feeling thermometer." For each candidate discussed, the respondent was asked to assign a number between 0 and 100 in which the higher the number, the warmer and more favorably they felt about that person, and the lower the number, the colder and less favorable the opinion.
For the Democratic Party, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the obvious top choice for presidential nominee with 63 percent. In the Republican Party, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took the No. 1 spot, with a less decisive lead over his opponents at 15 percent.
According to Quinnipiac, Clinton and Christie are once again both in the top spots as the hottest politicians in the U.S., however, the N.J. governor leads all other potential potential 2016 presidential candidates. At 53.1 degrees on the thermometer Christie edges out Clinton (52.1 degrees) and even President Barack Obama (47.6 degrees).
"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's score is not surprising given her lengthy political career and especially strong support among Democrats and women," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "But Governor Christopher Christie's rating is impressive given that his experience - less than four years as governor - pales in comparison to Mrs. Clinton's resume."
The other potential Democratic nominees were Biden, who took 13 percent of the vote as a nominee, but whose popularity among voters was 46.2 degrees; Cuomo, who only took 6 percent of the vote, but who has a fairly high level of popularity among voters at 43.9 degrees; and in dead last place was O'Malley, who held just 1 percent, but still has a pretty high popularity quotient at 45.7 degrees.
Looking at the top four potential Republican Presidential nominees, we have Christie with 15 percent of the vote, 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan with 13 percent of the vote, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 12 percent of the vote and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with 10 percent of the vote.
So while it seems voters are still iffy on which Republican candidate should be given the 2016 nomination, they definitely have an opinion on who the hottest politicians are. Among the top four, Christie is the hottest at 53.1 degrees, followed by Rubio at 46.5 degrees, Ryan at 43 degrees and lastly Bush at 40.1 degrees.
Although Christie is the hottest politician among all voters, he is in last place among his 2016 Presidential rivals in the eyes of Republicans surveyed for the Quinnipiac poll. Republicans voted Ryan as the hottest of the four at 68.7 percent, followed by Rubio at 65.1 percent and Bush at 61.3 percent. Among Republican voters, Christie's popularity is rated at just 59.8 degrees.
Christie's greatest strength is among Independent voters, who scored him as their No. 1 most popular politician at 50.6 degrees.
"Christie's rating on the thermometer scale is a good indication of what may face him should he travel the 2016 campaign trail," said Brown. "His tougher problem may be winning the GOP nomination because in most states only registered Republicans are able to vote in party elections."
Another recent poll from McClatchy-Marist took also looked at potential 2016 presidential nominees. While there were only four Democratic options -Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley - that poll also showed Clinton was the clear front-runner for the party. In terms of the Republican party, a quarter of voters polled didn't have any opinion on a candidate-of-choice yet, and among the 11 options that did make the list, there certainly wasn't a clear front-runner.