GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
The public's opinion of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has slowly improved over the past year, so that her popularity today is the highest it has been since the spring of 1994. However, her favorability rating still trails her husband's by about the same margin as it did all last year, suggesting that her improvement is due more to the President's success than to her own.
According to the latest Gallup poll, a clear majority of Americans (56%) now have a favorable opinion of Hillary Clinton, while 37% have an unfavorable opinion. This represents a major shift from a year ago, when more Americans expressed an unfavorable (51%) than a favorable (43%) opinion. A similar improvement occurred in the President's popularity rating: A year ago, 54% of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton, compared with 65% today. This 11-point increase parallels the 13-point increase enjoyed by Hillary Clinton.
Apart from their personal views of Hillary Clinton, Americans today are even more positive about the job she is doing as First Lady: 62% approve, while 34% disapprove. Still, a sizable minority (43%) say she has too much influence in the Clinton administration, while a bare majority (52%) say she has either the right amount of influence or too little influence. These figures for the First Lady are only slightly worse than those found in a poll conducted right after Bill Clinton took office. Even then, 37% of Americans said Hillary Clinton had too much influence, compared with a bare majority (52%) who said she had about the right amount or too little influence.
Popularity of the President Not Always Greater
While the President's favorability rating today is nine percentage
points higher than that of the First Lady, such was not always the
case. In the first two years of his presidency, Bill Clinton
enjoyed favorability ratings that were generally about the same as
his wife's. In 1993, the First Lady's ratings actually averaged two
points higher than the President's, and in 1994 they averaged just
a point lower.
But in the aftermath of the 1994 Republican congressional victory, Hillary Clinton's handling of the administration's health care proposals during the previous year was widely seen as a major factor in the Republican victory. Furthermore, she came under increasing criticism for her alleged role in the firing of members of the White House travel office, and for testimony that she had given about the Whitewater real estate deal in Arkansas. In the spring of 1995, she held a news conference to answer questions related to these matters, but by then her popularity had fallen an average of five percentage points below that of the President.
One Year Ago: Lowest Favorability Ever
In January of 1996, Hillary Clinton received the lowest rating of
any First Lady in modern history, when a majority of Americans said
they had an unfavorable opinion of her. This occurred in the same
month that she was called before a federal grand jury to explain
apparent discrepancies in testimony she had given before Congress
about Whitewater and other matters. At that time, her favorability
rating had dropped to 11 points behind the President's, where it
stayed for the rest of the year. Even today, she trails Bill
Clinton by 9 percentage points in popularity among the general
public.
Gender Gap Narrows
The First Lady's increased popularity is accompanied by a reduction
in the gender gap. A year ago, 35% of men and 51% of women
expressed a favorable opinion of Hillary Clinton, a difference of
16 percentage points. Today, that gap has narrowed to nine points,
as 52% of men and 61% of women say they feel favorably about the
First Lady.
A similar reduction in the gender gap is found in the President's favorability ratings: a year ago, females gave him a 14-point higher favorability rating (61%) than males (47%), while today the difference is just five points (67% to 62%).
Survey Methods
The current results are based on telephone interviews with a
randomly selected national sample of 1,005 adults, conducted
January 10-13, 1997. For results based on a sample of this size,
one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable
to sampling and other random effects could be plus or minus 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.
Next, I'd like your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of this person -- or if you have never heard of him or her. First, Next.. (Bill Clinton asked first, then Mrs. Clinton rotated with Madeleine Albright)
| The Clintons: Comparable Favorability - Trend | ||||||
| Favorable |
Unfavorable | No opinion | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BC | HC | BC | HC | BC | HC | |
| 1997 Jan 10-13 |
65% | 56% | 31% | 37% | 4% | 7% |
| 1996 Oct 26-29*** |
58 | 49 | 38 | 43 | 4 | 8 |
| 1996 Aug 30- Sept 1** |
61 | 51 | 35 | 43 | 4 | 6 |
| 1996 Aug 28-29** |
60 | 51 | 34 | 41 | 6 | 8 |
| 1996 Aug 16-18** |
57 | 47 | 41 | 48 | 2 | 5 |
| 1996 Aug 5-7** |
60 | 48 | 37 | 45 | 3 | 7 |
| 1996 Jun 18-19 |
60 | 46 | 36 | 47 | 4 | 7 |
| 1996 Mar 15-17 |
58 | 47 | 38 | 48 | 4 | 5 |
| 1996 Jan 12-15 |
54 | 43 | 44 | 51 | 2 | 6 |
| 1995 Jul 7-9 |
57 | 50 | 40 | 44 | 3 | 6 |
| 1995 Mar 17-19 |
51 | 49 | 45 | 44 | 4 | 7 |
| 1995 Jan 16-18 |
56 | 50 | 42 | 44 | 2 | 6 |
| 1994 Nov 28-29 |
50 | 50 | 47 | 44 | 3 | 6 |
| 1994 Sep 6-7 |
47 | 48 | 50 | 47 | 3 | 5 |
| 1994 Jul 15-17 |
49 | 48 | 48 | 46 | 3 | 6 |
| 1994 Apr 22-24 |
56 | 56 | 41 | 40 | 3 | 4 |
| 1994 Mar 25-27 |
56 | 52 | 40 | 42 | 4 | 6 |
| 1994 Mar 7-8 |
59 | 55 | 38 | 40 | 3 | 5 |
| 1994 Jan 15-17 |
60 | 57 | 37 | 36 | 3 | 7 |
| 1993 Nov 2-4 |
54 | 58 | 42 | 34 | 4 | 8 |
| 1993 Sep 24-26 |
63 | 62 | 32 | 27 | 5 | 1 |
| 1993 Aug 8-10 |
53 | 57 | 42 | 33 | 5 | 10 |
| 1993 Jul 19-21 |
51 | 56 | 45 | 34 | 4 | 10 |
| 1993 Jun 5-6 |
48 | 50 | 44 | 31 | 8 | 19 |
| 1993 Apr 22-24 |
63 | 61 | 32 | 27 | 5 | 12 |
| 1993 Jan 29-31 |
65 | 67 | 27 | 22 | 8 | 11 |
| 1992 Nov 10-11 |
58 | 49 | 35 | 30 | 7 | 31 |
| ** registered voters *** likely voters |
||||||
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Hillary Clinton is handling
her job as first lady?
| First Lady's Job Rating - Trend | |||
| Approve | Disapprove | No Opinion | |
| 1997 Jan 10-13 |
62% | 34 | 4 |
| 1995 Jan 16-18 |
54% | 40 | 6 |
| 1994 Apr 22-24 |
56% | 37 | 7 |
| 1994 Mar 7-8 |
58% | 39 | 3 |
| 1993 Jan 29-31 |
67% | 16 | 17 |
In your opinion, does Hillary Clinton have too much, too little, or the right amount of influence in the Clinton administration?
| Too Much | Too Little | Right Amount | No opinion | |
| 1997 Jan 31 10-13 |
43% | 9 | 43 | 5 |
| 1994 Sep 16-19 |
52% | 5 | 39 | 4 |
| 1994 Apr 22-24 |
49% | 5 | 42 | 4 |
| 1994 Mar 7-8 |
53% | 4 | 39 | 4 |
| 1994 Jan 15-17 |
44% | 4 | 49 | 3 |
| 1993 Sep 29-30 |
41% | 4 | 48 | 7 |
| 1993 Aug 8-10 |
40% | 6 | 49 | 5 |
| 1993 Apr 22-24 |
40% | 7 | 49 | 4 |
| 1993 Jan 29-31 |
37% | 4 | 48 | 11 |
| The Clintons: Favorability, by Gender | |||
| Favorable | Unfavorable | No opinion | |
| Hillary Rodham Clinton | |||
| Jan 1996 | |||
| Male | 35% | 59 | 6 |
| Female | 51% | 43 | 6 |
| Jan 1997 | |||
| Male | 52% | 43 | 5 |
| Female | 61% | 32 | 7 |
| Bill Rodham Clinton | |||
| Jan 1996 | |||
| Male | 47% | 51 | 2 |
| Female | 61% | 37 | 2 |
| Jan 1997 | |||
| Male | 62% | 35 | 3 |
| Female | 67% | 28 | 5 |