NEW YORK: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has opened a 15-point lead over Republican Donald Trump, who according critics is his own worst enemy infuriating every demographic group in the country a poll released on Friday said.

The poll said Mrs Clinton made strong gains with two constituencies crucial to a Republican victory — whites and men — while scoring important gains among fellow Democrats, the poll found.

She not only went up, but Trump also went down. Clinton now has a 48-33 percent lead, a huge turnaround from her narrow 42-39 advantage last month.

The findings are particularly significant because the poll was taken after both political conventions ended and as Trump engaged in a war of words with the parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in an explosion in Iraq 12 years ago while trying to rescue other soldiers.

Other polls have shown Clinton in the lead, though Marist’s is the largest so far. Even the polls taken by Fox News and Wall Street Journal put Mrs Clinton in the lead by big margins.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2016