Former President Bill Clinton’s favorability rating has soared in the past three years and now stands at 67 percent — his highest rating since leaving the White House, according to a survey by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Clinton’s rating stood at 52 percent in February 2008, when wife Hillary was in a Democratic primary battle with Barack Obama. That rating has risen by 15 percentage points since then and matches his previous high dating back to November 1991.
His unfavorability rating, meanwhile, has plunged from 42 percent to just 29 percent.
His favorability is way up among Republicans, rising from 16 percent in February 2008 to 40 percent in the new survey. It also has risen among independents from 53 percent to 66 percent, and among Democrats from 81 percent to 89 percent.
Clinton also enjoys an 88 percent rating from blacks, up from 79 percent three years ago.
Within age groups, he rates highest among those 18 to 29 (70 percent), and within income groups, he rates highest at 72 percent among those earning less than $30,000 a year.
Bill Clinton’s glow seems to be mutually reflected with Hillary’s ratings as Secretary of State. A CNN poll in March found that Mrs. Clinton had a 65 percent approval rating. President Obama, who battled Mrs. Clinton for the Democratic nomination, had an approval rating of 47 percent.
Since leaving the presidency, President Clinton has won wide praise across the political spectrum for his work with his Clinton Foundation, which he established to take action on global problems he could uniquely influence through his experience as a global leader. Today it works in more than 60 countries and in the United States to alleviate poverty, improve global health, strengthen economies, and protect the environment.
One project of the foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, has raised more than $57 billion since its 2005 inception for 1,700 philanthropic projects that have improved the lives of 220 million people around the globe.