(PMSNBC) - The two biggest names in the 2016 presidential race — Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush — both have had rocky rollouts at this early stage. For Hillary, it’s been the questions over her emails and the Clinton Foundation. For Jeb (who is technically not a candidate but is certainly running), it’s been questions about Jim Baker, George W. Bush, and now the Iraq war. But there is one big difference between the two White House hopefuls: Hillary is leading the Democratic race by 40-50 points in the polls and thus has lots of room to make mistakes especially within her party, while Jeb has little margin for error in the wide-open GOP contest. Indeed, our NBC/WSJ poll last week found Bush with the lowest fav/unfav score among conservatives (33%-28%) for all the Republican 2016ers it tested. And look who have been arguably the biggest critics of Bush’s Iraq answers – conservatives like the Washington Examiner’s Byron York and radio talker Laura Ingraham (whose beef with Jeb goes well beyond this week’s news). Getting the benefit out of the doubt is a powerful thing in politics, and right now Hillary is receiving it from her party. Many (though not all) Democrats are giving her a pass for not having a clear position on trade. But Jeb? He’s not getting the same benefit of the doubt from his own party. Read more.
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