American voters have picked Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential bet Hillary Clinton as the best candidates suited to deal with terrorism after the bloody attacks in Paris, France.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll among 1,106 respondents conducted between Nov. 15-17 showed that 20.3 percent picked Clinton while 19.5 percent chose Trump.
"Given Clinton's background as a former secretary of state it is perhaps not surprising that she did reasonably well in the poll," according to Reuters. "However, Trump's good showing upends an emerging narrative that the Paris shootings and suicide bombings would prompt voters to rethink their support for the real estate billionaire, who leads the field of Republican presidential candidates."
According to some pollsters and political pundits, Republican voters would not support establishment candidates like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who are both seen as stronger on foreign policy than Trump and Ben Carson.
Democrat Glenn Matlosz, 71, of Audubon, New Jersey, said Trump "is telling it as it is. He's not mincing any words. There is no gobbledygook there. Everybody else is squawking."
By party, Clinton and Trump also topped the survey. A total of 52 percent picked Clinton as the best Democratic candidate while Republicans chose Trump with 33 percent.
Rubio followed Trump with 17 percent as the strongest candidate to deal with terrorism. Carson was tied with Bush at 9 percent.
Among Republican voters, 36 percent said they now have more confidence in Trump's ability to be president while only 10 percent said they were less confident in his abilities after the Paris attacks.
Carson and Rubio were also viewed more favourably by Republicans in the poll. Only 8 percent said Bush would be the best leader to deal with terrorism.
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said voters respond to candidates with tough agenda.
"Sure, if Colin Powell was running, it would benefit him. Or if David Petraeus was a candidate, it would benefit him," he said, referring to the two retired army generals.
"But which of these candidates has an actual plan as opposed to piecemeal tactical solutions or platitudes? So they default to the guy who with the most conviction says, 'I'm going to bomb the shit out of them.' [That's] Mr. Donald Trump," he said.
