A key poll shows Joe Biden sharply increasing his lead after last week's debate with Donald Trump.
In the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, taken after the showdown but before Trump's Covid diagnosis and hospitalization, Biden leads by 14 points, six higher than in the last sampling.
In the poll, conducted after the Sept. 29 debate, 53% supported Biden, and 39% backed Trump, a 6-point jump in support for Biden from the same poll in mid-September.
The poll also showed 50% of voters had a "very negative" view of Trump, the highest he's reached in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll since he was elected president. Only 29% had a "very positive" view, by contrast.
The survey of 800 registered voters was conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 1
The debate was widely considered a disaster for Trump, who constantly talked over Biden and moderator Chris Wallace, was obviously unprepared, and told far-right supporters to "stand back and stand by". Biden didn't shine, but Trump's own campaign had set expectations so low that all Biden had to do was show up and not fall asleep.
The WSJ/NBC operation is one of the few to be given an "A" grade by Five Thirty Eight. The poll is an outlier, but helps Biden to an 8-point lead in Five Thirty Eight's aggregated model of all the pollsters it finds credible.
Other recent polls show Biden with a 10 point advantage, though there is also an outlier in the other direction, too. Zogby's Oct 2 poll puts Trump and Biden within the margin of error [PDF].
YouGov must be in a fey mood too, as it's been polling Biden v. Pence and Harris v. Pence. Pence loses handily to Biden, but by a thinner margin to Harris.
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