Condoleezza Rice is a busy lady. In February, she was mending rifts and strengthening ties in Europe and the Middle East. In March, she was championing democracy and stressing global partnership in South and East Asia. So far this year, the newest secretary of state has visited 19 countries, from Pakistan to Poland, racking up more than 54,000 travel miles as she promotes U.S. foreign policy.
What is the public's take on how the Bush administration's chief diplomat is handling her job? By and large, it's positive. A March 18-20 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll*, conducted as Rice was finishing her tour of six Asian nations, found a majority of Americans (61%) approve of the way Rice is handling her job. Roughly a quarter (24%) disapprove, and 15% have no opinion.
Not surprisingly, opinion of how Rice is handling her job varies dramatically by political party affiliation, with more than twice as many Republicans approving as Democrats. More than 8 in 10 Republicans (85%) express approval, compared with 57% of political independents and just 40% of Democrats.
Favorable Rating Comparisons
In February, Gallup also asked Americans for their more basic opinions on Rice. The results are somewhat similar to her job approval rating, with roughly 6 in 10 Americans (59%) saying they have a favorable opinion of her, and slightly more than a quarter (27%) expressing an unfavorable opinion. Gallup's trend on this question dates back to October 2003, when Rice was national security adviser. After a 55% reading in October 2003, Rice's favorable rating dipped slightly (to 50%) in March 2004. Her favorable rating has since hovered in the 60% range.
How does Rice's favorable rating compare with those of her two most recent predecessors at the State Department? Her current rating is similar to those of the first female secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, who served during President Bill Clinton's second term (1997-2001). Albright's favorable rating was in the 60% range while serving as secretary of state.
Rice's favorable rating is significantly lower than that of Colin Powell, who served from 2001 to 2005. During his tenure as secretary of state, Powell's favorable rating averaged 85% -- among the highest ratings of any figure Gallup has tested. Powell's ratings have been high since he became a national figure while serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Race and Gender
Rice is a black woman, so it is possible that she may be thought more highly of by women and nonwhite Americans than by men and white Americans. This doesn't appear to be the case -- Rice's job approval rating is nearly identical among women and men, and her favorable rating is actually lower among women than among men (56% compared with 62%). Among nonwhite respondents, her favorability sags substantially, which is likely because nonwhites tend to identify as Democrats. Rice's job approval rating among nonwhites is 42%, compared with 66% among whites; her favorability among nonwhite respondents is 44%, compared with 64% among whites. So despite her unique background compared with prior secretaries of state, Rice is still largely evaluated in partisan terms.
*These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national samples of 1,008 adults and 909 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 25-27, and March 18-20, 2005, respectively. For results based on these samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
