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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FJB who wrote (755579)

12/2/2013 1:49:29 PM

From: FJB

Respond to of 1578558

Hillary Clinton’s Star Continues to Fade

By Charles C. W. Cooke
December 2, 2013 1:21 PM

A few weeks ago, Slate’s Dave Weigel noticed that Hillary Clinton was no longer particularly popular. On October 31, Weigel wrote that:

Clinton’s approval is down to 46 percent favorable, 33 percent unfavorable. That’s the lowest number she’s scored since she became Secretary of State; she left the office this year with a 56/25 rating.

This is more dramatic than I would have imagined, but some drop was to be expected. Secretaries of State almost always become less popular when they leave office and return to the fray. The trouble for Clinton, however, is that her numbers are still dropping: Per YouGov:

Nearly nine months after leaving office, more Americans have an unfavorable than a favorable opinion of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a recent YouGov/Economist poll. However, Clinton remains the indisputable favorite among Democrats to be their 2016 presidential nomination.

Also worrying is why her numbers are still dropping. Evidently the collapse transcends her return to partisan politics:

. . . starting around mid-May of this year, the positive feelings began to recede and the secretary’s image has not recovered since, with nearly half of Americans (48%) now holding an unfavourable opinion of her, compared to 46% with a favourable one, for a net rating of -2.

The shift in May suggests that negative press surrounding the tragic September 11, 2012 attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, may have impacted views about Clinton and her tenure at the State Department.

Twisting the knife, YouGov questions whether her previous office did, in fact, help with her originally high approval rating:

And interestingly, while many commentators have credited her ‘non-political’ role as Secretary of State for allowing Clinton to keep free of the partisan fray, the same effect does not seem to hold true for her successor.

In the survey conducted November 23-25, just 38% of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate and former Senator from Massachusetts. 48% have an unfavorable opinion of Kerry.

Among Democrats and African-Americans (generally synonymous), Clinton remains popular. Among key independents on the other hand . . .

An even greater drop is visible among Independents, traditionally an particularly important bloc of voters, a majority (51%) of whom viewed Clinton favourably during January. For November, the same number is over 10 points lower, at 40%.

It is difficult to tell how much of this has to do with the general disdain for Democrats that has been one consequence of the disastrous healthcare rollout, and how much has to do with Hillary specifically. Either way, it can’t be good news for the Clinton camp.Inevitable? Nothing is inevitable.