NBC poll: Trump No. 1 after the debate, Cruz, Fiorina both jump

An NBC poll pegs Donald Trump at #1 after last Thursday’s debate, with 23% of Republican primary voters, a gain of about 1%.

Ironically he was voted as having done the best job by 18% and the worst job by 29%.  Not sure how this affects his campaign, but 24 million people watched, and we all know it is largely because of Trump.

Ted Cruz settled in at #2 and had the highest jump from 6% to 13%.

Carly Fiorina moved from 2% to 8%.  It appears that being the leader of the pack and dominating “undercard” helped her greatly.  She can now be considered a “contender” and is leading Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, but is still behind Ben Carson, and tied with Marco Rubio.  She was voted as doing the best job in the debate by 22%.

Scott Walker and Jeb Bush both lost 3%, each falling from 10% to 7% in the polls. 

Author’s Analysis:   Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson both got a huge bounce because frankly they were not as well known to the general voting public (we hardcore folks knew them, of course).  I suspect their numbers will fall a bit in comparison to others, once their new found freshness and shininess wears off a bit.

The decline may be bad for Scott Walker, since his fundraising is not as strong, but I’m not ready to call his campaign over just yet.  

Not to worry about Jeb Bush, his fundraising is going well and he will have plenty of opportunities to turn things around in debates to come.  As always take these polls with a grain of salt…