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Washington — Billionaire Donald Trump extended his lead yet again atop the Republican presidential field, with front-running Democrat Hillary Clinton slipping and Vice President Joe Biden faring better than her against Republicans, poll results revealed on Thursday. Trump, the combative real estate mogul, leads the 16 other Republican candidates with 27 percent support among registered voters nationwide, up from 20 percent in a similar July 30 survey by Quinnipiac University.

Thursday’s lead marks the widest margin for any Republican so far in the election cycle, the survey said. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson placed second with 13 percent, former Florida governor Jeb Bush earned eight percent, Senator Ted Cruz came in fourth with seven percent, and Senator Marco Rubio fifth with six percent. “Other GOP hopefuls seem to disappear. Trump proves you don’t have to be loved to be the leader,” said Quinnipiac poll assistant director Tim Malloy.

Trump’s abrasive style, including his open and caustic criticism of rivals, has led some observers to say he does not have the temperament to be president, but he has dominated the race essentially since he declared his candidacy in June. On the Democratic side, Clinton’s support has shrunk, to 44 percent now compared with 55 percent on July 30, while her main rival Senator Bernie Sanders is polling at his highest level, 22 percent. Biden, who is not a declared candidate but is mulling jumping into the race, earned 17 percent in the poll. Significantly, Biden “has the best appeal in general election match-ups against top Republicans,” Malloy said.

Biden beats Trump by nine points, Bush by five points, and Rubio by three points. Clinton beats them too but by smaller numbers: four points, two points and one point respectively. Despite Trump’s Republican lead, he has the highest negative favourability numbers in the field, at 35 percent to 55 percent. Bush is underwater as well, at 33-41, while Clinton’s negative 39-51 matches her worst favourability rating ever.

Biden’s favourability rating was positive, at 46-41, while Rubio’s was 42-28 and Sanders 32-28. Trump and Clinton are also seen as the least honest and trustworthy of the field. Meanwhile, Biden, in his first publicly aired comments on a possible presidential candidacy, told fellow Democrats on Wednesday he was trying to decide whether he could give “my whole heart and my whole soul” to a run for the White House. In a conference call with Democratic National Committee members in which Biden also discussed the Iran nuclear deal, he said: “We’re dealing at home with . . . whether or not there is the emotional fuel at this time to run,” according to CNN, which said it gained access to the conversation.

“If I were to announce to run, I have to be able to commit to all of you that I would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul, and right now both are pretty well banged up and we’re trying to figure out that issue,” Biden said in an audio clip aired by CNN. He added: “Believe me, I’ve given this a lot of thought and dealing internally with the family on how we do this.” Biden’s eldest son, Beau Biden, a former Delaware attorney general, died of cancer in May at age 46. It was another family tragedy for the vice president, who lost his first wife and his daughter in a car accident shortly after first winning election to the US Senate from Delaware in 1972.

Biden has been huddling with senior advisors to evaluate options for taking on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. She has struggled to overcome fallout from her use of a private email server while working as the nation’s top diplomat. Speculation that Biden might run ratcheted up on the weekend when he met with Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a power broker among liberals. Clinton, speaking to reporters in Iowa on Wednesday, said Biden, a former Senate colleague “is a friend of mine” for whom she has “a great deal of admiration and affection”. — AFP