Poll shows Christie with big lead : NJ gov is ‘hot’ with US voters

The Boston Herald reports:

As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sauntered to the microphone Thursday morning, a few things became clear about “Bridgegate” — Christie was sorry, his now-fired aide behind lane closings on the George Washington Bridge was a liar and “stupid,” Christie was “humiliated” and sorry, and, of course, Christie was sorry.

The public also learned something else that morning: Christie was the hottest politician in America — at least according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

“It came out at the same moment he was speaking,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the school’s polling institute, said with a chuckle.

The poll — ill-timed but of no fault of Quinnipiac’s — showed Christie clocking in at 55.5 degrees, a rating based on name recognition and voter feelings. It made the portly 2016 presidential contender “hotter” than Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was ranked third, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who checked in at seventh. It also continued a trend from August, when Christie also was rated the country’s hottest politician by Quinnipiac pollsters, just ahead of his address to national Republican Party members here in Boston.