Boosted by a strong showing in the most recent Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton now leads Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by 16 points in the latest national polling.

CBS reports a new CNN/ORC poll shows the 2016 Democratic front runner now garners 50 percent of the vote, compared to Sanders' 34 percent. In addition, 60 percent of all Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents now indicate they plan to vote for the former First Lady, some 27 points ahead of those responding in the same way on Sanders' behalf.

A more intense breakdown of the numbers also revealed more voters are convinced Clinton would fare better than Sanders on the critical issues of the economy (47 to 39), foreign policy (72 to 15) and ISIS (63 to 18).

When it comes to a head-to-head matchup with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, Clinton also comes out on top, edging the outspoken real estate mogul, who recently proposed banning Muslims from freely traveling in the U.S., 49 to 47 percent.

On the Republican front overall, a new American Research Group survey out of New Hampshire shows Trump still leading that state with 21 percent of the vote with Ohio Gov. John Kasich now surging to 13 percent and third place overall.

Kasich trails runner-up Rubio by just two points and leads both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (12 percent) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (10). Overall, 81 percent of GOP voters now insist they'd consider him a plausible option for the party's official nomination, second only to Rubio (83 percent) from among a crowded field of candidates on that front.

By comparison, just 37 percent of all those surveyed said they would cast their vote for Trump and 57 percent said they never would under any circumstances.

The telephone poll surveyed 1,018 adults and was conducted between Dec. 17-21, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.