Hillary Clinton More Popular President Obama

These results are based on an Oct. 1-4 Gallup survey
by Jeffrey M. Jones

Princeton,NJ --Hillary Clinton Now More Popular Than Barack Obama Secretary of state viewed favorably by 62% of Americans, president by 56%. Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, but in one respect she now ranks ahead of Obama. The president's current favorable rating of 56% is down 22 percentage points since January. Over the same time span, Clinton's favorable rating has changed little, and now, at 62%, it exceeds Obama's.

"Clinton's current favorable rating ranks among her best in the 17 years Gallup has polled Americans about her."The change in the relative popularity of Clinton and Obama since January may reflect the realities of their new roles. Obama came into office as president with a 78% favorable rating, among the highest Gallup has measured since it began tracking favorability in 1992. But after nearly nine months in office in which he has made or confronted difficult decisions -- ranging from the economic stimulus package, to the auto industry bailout, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to health insurance reform, Obama's support has declined. His favorable rating now stands at 56%, and has fallen 10 points just since the last reading, in July.

The 56% favorable rating for Obama is his lowest since late 2007, when he had a 53% favorable rating, but at that time, 13% of Americans did not have an opinion of him. The current 40% unfavorable rating for Obama is his highest, and thus his most negative such rating to date.

Clinton's current favorable rating ranks among her best in the 17 years Gallup has polled Americans about her. Her highest favorable rating of 67% came in late December 1998, just after her husband, President Bill Clinton, was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Partisan Views of Clinton and Obama

Republicans' more positive views of Clinton relative to Obama mark a reversal since January, when Republican ratings of Obama (60%) were much more positive than those of Clinton (35%). Thus, Obama's favorable rating has declined 41 points among Republicans since January, while Clinton's has not moved at all.