Romney, Bush take hits in poll

Both Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush have seen their ratings with voters fall since they’ve taken moves to run for president, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds. 

{mosads}In September, Romney had a 60 percent to 13 percent positive to negative rating among Republicans. Now that he has signaled real interest in a third White House campaign, his positive rating has fallen 8 percentage points, to 52 percent. Fifteen percent now have a negative view of him.

The public as a whole already had a negative view of Romney, with 32 percent saying they had a positive view of him compared to 39 percent who said they had a negative view in September. Now 27 percent have a positive view of Romney, compared to 40 percent who have a negative view. 

Bush, who is less well known than Romney, has also seen his numbers fall.

He’s gone from a 44 percent to 12 percent positive to negative rating among Republicans in November, to a 37 percent to 15 percent positive to negative rating now. 

Bush is also viewed negatively by the wider public, at 26 percent positive to 33 percent negative in November. That is now down to 19 percent positive and 32 percent negative. 

The poll finds that Romney fares better with conservatives than Bush, who has drawn criticism for his support of Common Core education standards and immigration reform.

Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives and 52 percent of Tea Party supporters view Romney positively. For Bush, it is 30 percent of conservatives and 29 percent of Tea Party backers.

On the Democratic side, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has a positive rating among the public as a whole, at 45 percent positive to 37 percent who see her negatively. Among Democrats, three-quarters view her positively, and just 7 percent view her negatively.