Race for 2016: "Arrogant", "Liar" and "Weak".
HARLOW: When you see or hear Donald Trump, what is the first word that pops into your head? Or what about Hillary Clinton? Or Jeb Bush? Well, Quinnipiac University posed that question to registered voters in their latest poll. Ryan Lizza back with me to discuss the results. He's the Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker." Ryan, let's stick through this, let's start with Donald Trump. Here are the top five responses when people asked about him -- arrogant, blowhard, idiot, businessman, clown. Does this match up with someone who is leading so broadly in the polls?</s>RYAN LIZZA, THE NEW YORKER: I love these polls. They are so revealing when they do these. I'm curious about what the blurred-out one is there, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Yes, me too.</s>LIZZA: I -- you know, this is early in the race and I would say that there's a chance for Donald Trump to overcome some of this, perhaps. One of the things that he has changed in this race over the last couple months that surprised me at least is the number of Republicans who say they would never support him has dropped from like 50 percent down to 25 percent.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>LIZZA: That suggests that he has a negative opinion, no doubt, and as this poll shows, but if he wanted to work on image rehabilitation, it's possible. So, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't totally read the clown and all the rest as that's it, his image in the American public's mind is completely set in stone. Voters do change their mind. But having said all that, I think his bigger problem is the groups, the segments of American electorate he has almost gone out of his way to alienate and offend. And most Republican strategists frankly believe that a strategy of running hardcore anti-immigration campaign is not going to help you win the president as a general election nominee.</s>HARLOW: Well, it's interesting, Ryan. I was listening to a pollster this morning on "SMERCONISH" show, saying you need like 64 percent of the white vote if Donald Trump wants to win a general election. That's sort of unattainable right now for any candidate so you need to broaden the tent and that tent needs to encompass minority voters. Let me ask you this.</s>LIZZA: That's right.</s>HARLOW: I want to turn to Hillary Clinton. The top five words people use to describe her. Liar, dishonest, untrustworthy, experienced and strong. The top three words, troubling. The latter two, helpful.</s>LIZZA: Yes, it's interesting, two sides of the coin there. Look, I think with Hillary Clinton, she has had this problem, this perception of her going back to her years frankly in Arkansas, in the White House, when she ran her two Senate campaigns and when she ran her last presidential campaign, it's always been the number one issue she's had to deal with as a public figure. When you have been in the public eye as long as Hillary Clinton is, it's a little bit harder to change voters' views of you. People have really made up their mind about her. She has a very low -- excuse me, very high floor and low ceiling. People that love her, love her. People that hate her really hate her. And I think if you go back to 2008, you will remember Barack Obama, the issue that he really used to go after her was character. He subtly brought up these issues of trustworthiness. I don't see anyone in the Democratic primaries bringing that up against her yet. Bernie Sanders has all but promised not to do that. I think it would be tough for Joe Biden to go after her character. But in a general election, whether it's Donald Trump or Jeb Bush, whoever, that is what the Republican attack against her will be. She will have to deal with that.</s>HARLOW: I got 30 seconds for Jeb Bush. All right. Here are the words -- Bush, family, honest, weak and brother. Seemingly better than the other two.</s>LIZZA: Yes, depending on what people mean when they say Bush, right? It is fascinating. What's the first word coming to your mind about Jeb Bush, Bush, right? That may be positive to some people, may be negative to other people. So I think he has a little bit of an opportunity to tell his own story, to explain how he's not like his father's administration or how he won't govern like his father or his brother, how he will be his own man. Unfortunately for him, he hasn't been able to do that because Donald Trump has been the focus of so much coverage.</s>HARLOW: Right. Sucking up all the oxygen. Ryan Lizza, thank you, my friend. Fascinating story by Ryan --</s>LIZZA: Thank you, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: -- on Joe Biden and the potential run in "New Yorker" this week. Check it out. Coming up next, Detroit, the biggest American city ever to go bankrupt. Next, I'm going to tell you about a Motor City comeback.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not dead. We are alive and we're coming back stronger than before. Sometimes you have to be at the bottom in order to climb your way to the top.</s>HARLOW: Is this Detroit 2.0? Our American opportunity, next.