Hillary Clinton rates 24 points higher than Obama

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new poll of "News Watchers" - registered voters who follow the news "closely" or "very closely" - finds that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have public approval ratings much higher than those of their boss, President Obama.

The Clarus Poll, which asked respondents to rate top Administration officials, reveals that Clinton - Obama's former presidential primary rival - is the most popular member of the administration, drawing a 75 percent approval rating, including a 57 percent approval rating from Republicans.

Key findings from the Clarus Poll:

• The second most popular official in the Administration is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a Bush Administration holdover, who scored 69 percent approval and 20 percent disapproval. Clinton and Gates outscored their boss, the president, by 24 points and 18 points, respectively. (See full survey results and methodology explanation below.)
  • "Clinton and Gates were the only two names tested in the poll that won strong majorities across the partisan divide from Democrats, Independents and Republicans," said Ron Faucheux, president of Clarus.
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the most popular Administration official - she scored a 75 percent job approval rating and a 21 percent disapproval rating.
• Two officials most closely identified with economic policies - Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and top Economic Adviser Larry Summers - both posted higher disapproval ratings (45, 41) than approval ratings (44, 25).
• White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, often viewed by political pundits as a tough partisan combatant, did much better among fellow Democrats (72 percent approval) than Republicans (13 percent approval).
• Press Secretary Robert Gibbs - the highly visible spokesman for the White House - had the highest approval rating (50 percent) among White House staffers and advisers. Summers had the lowest (25 percent).
• News watchers who live inside the Washington, D.C. "beltway" area reported higher favorable ratings of Administration officials than respondents who live in the rest of the country. "These results show that the 'Beltway echo chamber' does not reflect the rest of the country, even among news watchers," said Faucheux.
• President Obama's 51 percent approval in this survey of "News Watchers" was slightly higher than his ratings in recent polls conducted among all voters. In three publicly reported national surveys taken between December 8 and 14, 2009 by USA Today, Gallup, and Fox News, Obama's approval rating averaged 49 percent.

Clarus Research Group, a nonpartisan polling firm based in Washington, D.C., conducted the poll December 7-12, 2009. Interviews were conducted via live telephone interviewers. The survey was not sponsored or paid for by any client, candidate or political party. It was based on a sample of 800 U.S. registered voters who are self-identified news watchers. Of the total sample, 200 respondents came from the Washington D.C. "beltway" area and 600 from the rest of the country. Nationwide results were weighted so that Washington, D.C. area voters were counted according to their actual proportion of the nation's electorate. The Washington, D.C. area sample was augmented to allow for comparison of results inside and outside the "beltway." The margin of error for the nationwide sample is +/- 4 percent.

Because some Administration insiders are not well known to the general public, only voters who said they "closely" or "very closely" follow news and world events were included in the survey's sample. Those who said they follow news and world events "fairly closely" or "not closely at all" were screened out.

Dr. Faucheux is the author and editor of seven books on politics and teaches at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in political science with a concentration in voter behavior research.

SURVEY RESULTS

QUESTION ASKED: I am now going to read to you the names of members of the Obama Administration. Please tell me whether you approve or disapprove of the job they're doing. If you don't know enough about them to rate their job performance, just say so....

                       Nationwide          Nationwide            Inside DC

                                                                   Beltway
                      APP   DISAPP        DEM    REP    IND          App


    President
     Barack Obama       51%      45%        93%    19%    33%           66%

    Vice President
     Joe Biden          50       41         84     17     48            65

    Secretary of
     State Hillary
     Clinton            75       21         96     57     65            83

    Treasury
     Secretary Tim
     Geithner           44       45         73     24     26            53

    Attorney
     General Eric
     Holder             41       35         74     15     25            58

    Defense
     Secretary
     Robert Gates       69       20         78     63     63            84

    Health/HS
     Secretary
     Kathleen
     Sebelius           41       35         68     22     25            55

    Chief of Staff
     Rahm Emanuel       40       40         72     13     31            55

    Presidential
     Adviser David
     Axelrod            38       36         67     16     21            52

    Economic
     Adviser Larry
     Summers            25       41         38     12     22            42

    National
     Security
     Adviser James
     Jones              30       23         40     19     30            45

    Press Secretary
     Robert Gibbs       50       33         75     25     41            64

    KEY: "APP" = Nationwide approval, "DISAPP" = Nationwide disapproval,
    "DEM" = Democrats, "REP" Republicans, "IND" = independents, "Inside
    DC Beltway App" = Approval ratings inside the Washington D.C.
    "beltway" area

SOURCE Clarus RG

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