Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains the most popular politician in the nation, according to the results of a new Quinnipiac poll.
Clinton is “easily the most popular actor on the American political stage today,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute in Hamden, Conn. The former first lady and senator was not only the most popular, but she eclipsed President Barack Obama, who defeated her in 2008 for the Democratic nomination.
The net favorability rating is the difference between the percentage of respondents who view someone as favorable vs. those who have an unfavorable view of that person. In this case President Obama has +5 rating while Clinton scored a whopping +27.
The only Republican to fare well was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who had a +12 net favorability. However, 57 percent said they did not know enough about Rubio to have an opinion, showing he has some work to do before becoming a national household name. Rubio, also rated higher than Obama.
Clinton has not yet come to a decision on whether she'll run for president again in 2016, but her popularity numbers show she hasn't lost favor over recent months, even after the Benghazi terror attacks and her Senate testimony.
Clinton marked a bit of a drop, perhaps due to fiscal cliff difficulties earlier this year or because of a typical post-election slump. Obama's job approval rating dropped to 46 percent, with 45 percent of respondents disapproving. Just two months ago, in December, Obama was at 51 percent.
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But while Obama's job approval ratings took a post-election dip, the ratings of congressional Republicans matched their lowest approval Quinnipiac survey rates ever. Overall, Republicans' disapproval score rose to 72 percent, and even 51 percent of Republicans said they disapprove with how their party representatives peform in Washington.
But the lowest ratings came for Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. Boehner's net favorablity rating dove to -22.
Vice President Joe Biden was virtually tied with Obama in the poll. He also had a +5 favorability rating with 46 percent of U.S. Voters viewing him favorably and 41 percent viewing him unfavorably.
Republican Rep. Paul Ryan did not fare well either with a net favorable rating of -2. The former vice-presidential nominee was viewed unfavorably by 36 percent and favorably by 34 percent.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had a net favorability rating of -4.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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