National polling released in the wake of the two parties' conventions paints a pretty consistent picture: Hillary Clinton has emerged with a solid lead after the Democrats and Republicans made their cases to the country. The RealClearPolitics average of polls, shows the quick up-and-down movement in polling: Donald Trump took a small lead for a few days, but Hillary Clinton regained it after the Democratic convention.


If Trump's goal from his convention was to cement a lead for the final 100 days of the campaign, he failed.

Trump's problem runs deeper than that, though. According to CNN/ORC polling from before, between and after the conventions, Trump lost ground on nearly every issue and personal attribute the pollsters asked about.

On issues


Trump came into the conventions with an advantage on dealing with the economy, terrorism, and the Islamic State. After both conventions, he had an advantage in none of those.

Change before and after conventions:

  • The economy, before: Trump, plus-8. After: Clinton, plus-2.
  • Terrorism, before: Trump, plus-6. After: Tied.
  • Immigration, before: Clinton, plus-1. After: Clinton, plus-12.
  • Foreign policy, before: Clinton, plus-18. After: Clinton, plus-23.
  • Islamic State, before: Trump, plus-13. After: Clinton, plus-1.

On the issue of gun policy, asked only in the post-convention survey, Trump has a 2-point advantage. On no other issue did voters give him the edge.

On attributes


Hillary Clinton held a pre-convention advantage in a number of personal attributes asked about by CNN. She left the two conventions ahead in nearly every one -- except honesty. There, though, the two were essentially tied.

Change before and after conventions:

  • Has the right experience, before: Clinton, plus-32. After: Clinton, plus-36.
  • Would be a president you could be proud of, before: Clinton, plus-10. After: Clinton, plus-15.
  • Is in touch with the problems of normal Americans, before: Clinton, plus-8. After: Clinton, plus-14.
  • Is honest and trustworthy, before: Trump, plus-4. After: Trump, plus-1.
  • Is running for the country, not for personal benefit, before: Trump, plus-2. After: Clinton, plus-5.

We'd expect to see Clinton viewed more positively on issues and attributes in a poll that shows her leading nationally, of course. It can be tough to figure out which way the arrow points, to some extent: Are people saying they want Clinton to win because they trust her more on the issues? Or are they saying they trust her more on the issues because they plan to vote for her?

That causality doesn't matter much if the net result is that Clinton's made big strides after the Democratic convention. Trump's argument that Americans will vote for him because he will be the law-and-order candidate who is tough on the Islamic State and because he will create jobs is revealed to have a flaw in the new CNN poll: Voters trust Clinton more on dealing with the criminal justice system (plus-7), violance against police (plus-5) and the Islamic State (plus-1) -- and trust her more on economic issues (plus-2).

As long as voters say they think Clinton is the better choice on basically everything -- and we don't know how long that will be -- it's hard to see why they would vote for Trump.