Poll: Voters Like Hillary's Hypothetical Presidency Better than Obama's Real One

Abby Ohlheiser
Poll: Voters Like Hillary's Hypothetical Presidency Better than Obama's Real One

A new CNN poll places Hillary Clinton's presidential approval ratings — her hypothetical ones, anyway — above those of the actual President Obama's actual approval ratings on several issues. The poll, out Monday, compared voters' assessments of whether Clinton would do "a good job” as president on a number of topics to how voters previously responded to Obama's performance so far. In every single issue they tested, Clinton came out higher. The poll was conducted just before the release of her book, Hard Choices. 

Although the match-up between an actual presidency and a made-up idea of one in the future could seem utterly useless, CNN does point to one major thing it could indicate for Team Clinton and any of her challengers. Clinton, a former Secretary of State under Obama, needs to contend with how Obama's voter approval levels could harm or help her candidacy in 2016. These results indicate that so far they're not denting her chances. CNN's polling director Keating Holland wrote that their results "suggest that the President's low marks on most issues might not drag Clinton down if she runs for the White House again."

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Here's how the two compare: 

  • Foreign policy: 63 say Clinton would do a good job on foreign policy; 40 percent say they approve of Obama's handling of the same issue. 

  • Terrorism: 61 percent say Clinton would do a good job on terrorism; 49 percent approve of the President's job so far on it. 

  • Economy: 63 percent think Clinton would be good on the economy; just 38 percent approve of Obama's handling of the economy as president.

  • Health care: 57 percent believe Clinton would handle health care well; 36 percent approve of the President's health care policy. 

  • Immigration: 56 percent believe Clinton would do a good job on "illegal immigration" policy, while 35 percent approve of the President's immigration policy. 

  • Gun policy: 52 percent think Clinton would do a good job on gun control; 33 percent approve of Obama's gun policy. 

  • Helping the middle class: 55 percent think Clinton would do a good job helping the middle class; 40 percent approve of the President on this one. 

  • Environmental policy: 65 percent were optimistic about Clinton's hypothetical environmental policy; Obama's environmental policy approval rating is 49 percent. 

  • The federal budget deficit: 55 percent think Clinton would do a good job fixing the federal budget deficit; 31 percent approve of the president's handling of it.  

You'll notice that her ratings never drop below 50 percent, keeping her with a majority believing that she'd do a "good job" on the major issues facing the federal government today. Read more about the results at CNN. 

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This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/06/poll-voters-like-hillarys-hypothetical-presidency-better-than-obamas-real-one/372827/

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