Poll: Hillary Virtually Tied with Trump...in Mississippi

His decisive loss in Wisconsin wasn't the only bad news Tuesday delivered to Donald Trump. A fresh Mason-Dixon poll showed Hillary Clinton within the margin of error in a hypothetical head-to-head contest against Donald Trump in Mississippi -- a state that

hasn't 'gone blue' in 40 years. The same survey shows both Ted Cruz and John Kasich handily defeating the likely Democratic nominee:

Mason/Dixon poll - General election in Mississippi

Trump 46, Clinton 43
Cruz 51. Clinton 40
Kasich 52, Clinton 37https://t.co/0pnBRKAUJa
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) April 5, 2016

If the 'there's no way he could lose Mississippi, right?' consternation you're experiencing feels vaguely familiar, it should: A Deseret News/KSL poll released late last month found a virtual tie between Trump and Clinton in Utah, a state in which Trump got dismantled by Cruz, and that the GOP hasn't lost in half-a-century. I expressed heavy skepticism over that result at the time, but the new Mississippi data gives me pause. Even if you dismiss out of hand the possibility of either Utah or Mississippi flipping in November -- assuming, for example, that when push comes to shove, many currently-dissatisfied Republicans will coalesce in order to oppose Clinton -- the mere fact that these two ruby red states could even possibly be in jeopardy should be a wake-up call. If those states are even remotely in play, the swing states are gone, and a handful of borderline battlegrounds like Georgia, Arizona, Indiana, and possibly even Texas could be in danger.

But wait just a minute, you say. Didn't Republican primary turnout absolutely dwarf Democrats' showing in Mississippi last month? It sure did. But even though primary turnout can be an indication of enthusiasm, it's often a function of the primary's competitiveness, and is not historically predictive of general election outcomes. And Trump is historically unpopular across virtually every demographic. Before we leave the subject of historical predictiveness, it's worth noting that national polls taken in April have accurately "called" roughly two-thirds of national elections over the last six-plus decades. In case you hadn't noticed, the calendar flipped to April last week. Which brings us to the latest marker in a long line of 'Hillary bombards Trump' data points:

IBD/TIPP poll: Hillary leads Trump nationally by 12 points, roughly the RCP average margin...https://t.co/a5Hb4Nst1z
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 6, 2016

RCP's polling average shows Hillary +10.8 points; she's now led Trump in more than a dozen consecutive nationwide surveys, dating back to early February. And then there's this:

This is different.
Reuters/Ipsos national tracker, Likely Voters: Cruz 39 Trump 37 Kasich 23https://t.co/qtTxFE7paT pic.twitter.com/1MzPbnCRHi
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) April 5, 2016

Sure, that's a single outlier-ish tracking poll, but it's one Trump has dominated, never trailing dating back to last November...until yesterday, that is. I'll leave you with two options: Either click through and read about alleged disarray, low morale and mystifying swing-state layoffs roiling the Trump campaign, or enjoy this little gem about Donald Trump impersonating...a Donald Trump PR flack in 1991, personally managing gossip page coverage of his love life. Here's your frontrunner, Republicans:

This is nuts https://t.co/ehBWZ9LgpH pic.twitter.com/mOsynRfqnU
— Kyle Blaine (@kyletblaine) April 5, 2016

By the way, if you still get a thrill up your leg at the prospect of this person facing the Democrats in the fall, you'll love this piece, which doubles as a (deserved) knife-twist for the actual GOP establishment.