Subject: Right Wing Fixates on Hillary Clinton’s Approval Numbers; Fails to Note that Clinton is Gallup Poll’s Most Admired Woman in America for 12 Years Running
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 13:09:44 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

**

*Right Wing Fixates on Hillary Clinton’s Approval Numbers; Fails to Note
that Clinton is Gallup Poll’s Most Admired Woman in America for 12 Years
Running*

ATTACK: The right wing has fixated today on a poll by Politico showing that
Hillary Clinton’s approval numbers have evened out after record highs
following her time as Secretary of State.

Clinton has gone through a normal evolution in public opinion as she left
her position as Secretary of State and has begun being viewed through a
partisan lens as a potential candidate for office. This process was
doubtlessly hastened by the false and misleading work of Republican attack
groups, who have no qualified potential presidential candidates of their
own, and who have formed and coordinated efforts solely for the purpose of
dissuading Clinton from deciding to run for president.

But perspective is important.  As noted in the New Yorker today
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/28/biden-agenda>, “For twelve
consecutive years, she has been the most admired woman in America,
according to Gallup.”

The right wing is pushing a narrative that the Politico numbers represent a
decline in national public perception of Clinton, but that is not what this
poll measured.  As Politico discloses online
<http://images.politico.com/global/2014/07/18/140718_politico_topline_july_2014_survey_t_142watermark.pdf>,
this was a poll only of voters in battleground U.S. Senate and House races,
not the national electorate.  The numbers were weighted to represent the
demographics
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/how-the-poll-was-conducted-109147.html>
of the national electorate, but do not measure the national electorate
itself.

*THE POLL:*

-       The Politico poll asked voters to describe Secretary Clinton’s time
at State.

-       79 percent
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/politico-poll-hillary-clinton-department-of-state-109156.html>
of
Democrats viewed her performance as either good or excellent.

-       Only 5 percent of Democrats thought she did the job fairly or
poorly - in contrast to 86 percent of Republicans.  These Republicans would
never truly have been in play in a contested presidential election.

*THE BIG PICTURE:*

·       The sky-high approval numbers Hillary Clinton has had for most of
the past few years are reserved for leaders who are viewed as *outside* of
the typical partisan political battles. As Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton certainly was in that unique role.

 ·       But as Hillary becomes more involved with domestic issues, as the
media begins framing her in terms of a 2016 Presidential Election and as
the Republican attack machine looks for anything and everything to throw at
her it is no surprise that her numbers are coming back to earth.

 ·       Right now, Hillary Clinton has no office from which to pushback
against more than a half-dozen anti-Clinton-candidacy groups that have
already sprung up and gone to work.

Despite all of this – despite the fact that Republicans are resorting to
personal, misinformed and even blatantly false attacks on Hillary Clinton –
she is still one of the most popular leaders in our country.

-       As Dave Weigel writes
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/21/the_poll_that_will_make_democrats_panic_about_hillary_clinton.html>
in response to the Politico poll, “few doubt that Hillary is the most
electable, most Republican-infuriating candidate on the horizon.”

-       Washington Post blog “The Fix” writes
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/21/benghazi-and-hillary-clintons-misunderstood-record-as-secretary-of-state/>
that “people shouldn’t look at this poll and suddenly see it as a
liability.”

-       As noted in the New Yorker today
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/28/biden-agenda>, “It is hard to
overstate Clinton’s advantage. For twelve consecutive years, she has been
the most admired woman in America, according to Gallup.”

-       Most Americans believe that Hillary Clinton can relate to and is in
touch with average Americans. Fifty-five percent of Americans say that
Hillary Clinton can relate to and understand the problems of average
citizens, according to a recent NBC poll
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton/most-believe-hillary-clinton-can-relate-average-americans-poll-finds-n142911>
.

-       Clinton is extremely popular among Democrats: a new NBC/Marist poll
<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton/most-believe-hillary-clinton-can-relate-average-americans-poll-finds-n142911>puts
her favorability/unfavorability rating in Iowa at 89 percent/6 percent; in
New Hampshire it’s even higher, at 94 percent/4 percent.

-       More than 1,100
<http://wjon.com/1100-people-brave-heat-to-buy-hillary-clintons-new-book/>
people in Minnesota lined up in 85 degree heat last weekend to meet Hillary
Clinton and buy her new book, “Hard Choices.”