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Clinton's Top Selling Point in 2016: First Female President
Saturday, March 22, 2014 06:06 PM
By: Todd Beamon
Hillary Clinton's strongest suit heading into a possible 2016 presidential contest is that if she's elected, she'd be the nation's first female chief executive, according to a new Gallup survey.
Eighteen percent — nearly one in five of the 1,024 adults polled March 15-16 — told Gallup that the possibility of Clinton, 66, becoming the first female president was her most positive attribute.
That was followed by the former Secretary of State's overall experience, including her background in foreign policy, which was most attractive to 9 percent of those surveyed.
"Americans mention a number of other positives dealing with her personal characteristics — including her experience, and the perception that she is capable, qualified, and intelligent," Gallup said in its analysis of the survey results.
In addition, 2 percent of the respondents said that "a positive outcome of a Hillary Clinton presidency would be that Bill Clinton would be back in the White House," the organization said.
"Americans also indicate as a positive feature of a potential Clinton presidency the change it would provide from the Obama and Bush administrations, and, separately, that it would continue a Democratic agenda and platform," Gallup added.
The strongest factor working against Clinton is that she is not qualified for the White House — an opinion held by only 6 percent of the Gallup respondents.
That was followed by 4 percent who said that they would not want a female president. Just 2 percent cited Clinton's handling of the Benghazi attacks in which four Americans died in 2012 as a factor working against her for 2016.
"Americans' views of the possible negatives that would be associated with a Hillary Clinton presidency are more diverse than the positive responses," Gallup said. "No one single issue dominates to the degree that her being the first woman president does on the plus side."
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.