According to polls released today -- and despite a campaign that began as an embarrassment and continues to be so, often defiantly and possibly even strategically -- real estate magnate Donald Trump is ahead of his fellow Republican presidential contenders in one key early nominating state, and is running a close second in another.
According to two new NBC News-Marist polls, Trump is surging in New Hampshire, with 21 percent of potential primary voters supporting him. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is seven points behind, at 14 percent, with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker following him at 12 percent.
In Iowa, Walker and Trump are running neck-and-neck, with the governor garnering 19 percent of potential GOP voters to Trump's 17 percent. Bush trails both, coming in at 12 percent. However, among all registered Iowa voters, Trump's favorable/unfavorable score is an astonishing -28 (32 percent/60 percent), which could bode ill for the campaign.
Only one other candidate has a score that low -- and it's also Trump, who comes in at even more astounding -40 (27 percent/67 percent) in New Hampshire. His GOP opponents aren't faring much better, but at least they're withing spitting distance of being as well-liked as they are despised, with Walker at -1 in Iowa and -6 in New Hampshire, and Bush at -12 and -6 in the same.
The NBC News-Marist polls were conducted both before and after Trump's controversial remarks about Arizona Senator John McCain's "war heroism."
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