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Poll shows Hillary Clinton leading by 5 points

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads her Republican rival by five points and has improved her image over the past month, according to a latest national poll which attributed it to Dem

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads her Republican rival by five points and has improved her image over the past month, according to a latest national poll which attributed it to Democrats who have an increased enthusiasm for her.

The former secretary of state has improved her image by as many as nine points after the successful Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which concluded on Thursday.

“In a head to head just between Ms Clinton and Mr Trump, Ms Clinton hits 50 per cent and leads Mr Trump 50-45. A month ago, Ms Clinton led 45-41 in the full field contest and 48-44 in the head to head so there hasn’t been much change.

“But not much change is good news for Ms Clinton,” the Public Policy Polling (PPP) said releasing the results of its latest opinion polls.

PPP said the race is shaping up pretty similarly both nationally and at the state level to the margins Barack Obama won by in 2012 — not a huge landslide by any means, but a solid victory.

In another win, Ms Clinton, who is touring the US Rust Belt on Saturday, promising to reject bad international trade deals during a factory visit and securing the endorsement of investor Mark Cuban at a Pittsburgh rally.

The Dallas Mavericks owner, who said as recently as last month that there was a “good chance” he would vote for Donald Trump, instead criticised the Republican nominee’s leadership in front of an energetic crowd.

“Leadership is not yelling and screaming and intimidating,” Mr Cuban said.

“You know what we call a person like that in Pittsburgh A jagoff!” Mr Cuban added, using disparaging Pittsburgh slang.

Mr Cuban had spoken with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta several times in recent weeks and called him on Thursday to say he was ready to endorse Ms Clinton, a campaign aide said.

The conventions have passed without any change to that big picture, and that leaves Clinton as the favourite going into the final three months, it said.

According to PPP’s new national poll, taken completely after both party’s conventions, Clinton emerged with a much more positive image than she had a month ago.

Trump, meanwhile, is just as unpopular as he was before the conventions, it said.

“Clinton’s net favourability improved by nine points over the last month. She’s still not popular, with a -6 net favorability at 45/51, but it’s a good deal better than the -15 spread she had at 39/54 a month ago.

“The gains are particularly attributable to Democrats increasing in their enthusiasm for her, going from giving her a 76/15 rating to an 83/12 one,” PPP said.

“Trump, on the other hand, is at a -22 net favorability, with 36 per cent of voters seeing him favourably to 58 per cent with a negative one.

“That’s barely changed at all from the 35/58 standing we found for him in late June,” it said.

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