Voters Like Clinton Better Than Obama On The Issues

Hillary Clinton Barack Obama

A new CNN/ORC poll shows that voters prefer Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama on pretty much every issue:

Voters believe Hillary Clinton would do a better job on both foreign and domestic policy issues than President Barack Obama, according to a new poll.

In a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday, those polled were asked to rank whether the former secretary of state would do “a good job” handling various issues. For every issue tested, Clinton’s scored higher than the president.

“A majority think Clinton would do a good job on all nine issues tested in the poll; Obama’s job approval rating never breaks 50 percent on any of those same issues,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “None of this means that Clinton is a lock for the White House, but it is an enviable position for any candidate to be in.”

Sixty-three percent of Americans said Clinton would perform well on foreign policy issues, 23 percent more than those who say the president does a good job in that area. Sixty-one percent said she would handle terrorism well.

On domestic issues, 63 percent said she would fare well handling the economy, compared to the mere 38 percent of those who think Obama is doing well in the area. Fifty-seven percent said Clinton would do a good job handling health care.

To a large degree, of course, these numbers are a reflection of the President’s declining job approval numbers combined with the fact that, as a (potential) Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton gets the benefit of not actually being held responsible for anything that’s going on in the country. More broadly, though, it could indicate that Clinton herself won’t be damaged very much if Obama ends up remaining a relatively unpopular President when 2016 rolls around.

FILED UNDER: 2016 Election, Public Opinion Polls, Terrorism, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. humanoid.panda says:

    In other words, a hypothetical President is always better than a real life one. For this reason, Obama kept losing to a generic republican throughout the 2012 campaign…

  2. humanoid.panda says:

    But on a larger issue, I think this is Clinton’s great strength she can run as both continutity candidate (Obama’s SecState and ally) and a change candidate (the path not taken in 2008) or mix and match as necessary.

  3. maquignon says:

    Doesn’t mean that we REALLY like Hillary. ANYBODY would be better than Barack Obama.

  4. Brutalfacts says:

    Great news for the Democrats!. Since 1952 only 1988 stands out as the only election the Republicans got a 3rd term with H.W. Bush following Reagan. This adds validity to the prospect it will happen again in 2016.

  5. al-Ameda says:

    Republicans like Hillary better than Obama – in general.

    If Hillary was the president and Obama was retired and watching the festivities, Republicans would re-commence their hate of Hillary on inauguration day. They would hate her almost as much as they hate Obama (the miniscule difference being that Hillary favored Single Payer, which seems to have more support among Republicans than does the Republican-concept of ACA.)

    — Sixty-three percent of Americans said Clinton would perform well on foreign policy issues, 23 percent more than those who say the president does a good job in that area. Sixty-one percent said she would handle terrorism well. —

    Interesting in what it implies about “Benghazi” and the public’s attitude toward it and Hillary.

  6. Grewgills says:

    @al-Ameda:

    the miniscule difference being that Hillary favored Single Payer, which seems to have more support among Republicans than does the Republican-concept of ACA

    It has more support from Republicans because it isn’t what we did and what Democrats didn’t do is always better than what they did do.

  7. edmondo says:

    @humanoid.panda:

    Clinton’s great strength she can run as both continutity candidate (Obama’s SecState and ally) and a change candidate (the path not taken in 2008) or mix and match as necessary

    .

    Yeah, that strategery worked so well for President McCain back in 2008.

  8. An Interested Party says:

    Yeah, that strategery worked so well for President McCain back in 2008.

    Hillary can be stiff but she isn’t as stiff as McCain and she surely won’t have a running mate as disastrous as Sarah Palin oh and the Republican candidate in 2016 will probably be a loon…

  9. wr says:

    @maquignon: ” ANYBODY would be better than Barack Obama.”

    Sure… McCain. Palin. Santorum. Romney. Gingrich. Huckabee. All geniuses wrongfully denied their deserved chance at the tiller of the ship of state.

  10. Nikki says:

    What a ridiculous poll. Voters can’t choose between the two anymore, so who cares?