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NYT/CBS Poll: Hillary's Favorability Increasing Despite Scandals
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 08:58 PM
By: Cathy Burke
Americans are looking at embattled Hillary Clinton more favorably — and consider her a stronger leader — than they did earlier in the year, despite troubling questions about her ethics, a New York Times/CBS News poll has shows.
The Democratic presidential candidate's favorability has notched up by 9 percentage points since news broke in March that she used her own private email account as secretary of state.
Meanwhile, 65 percent of Americans say she's got strong leadership qualities, up from 57 percent since March. On the trust front, about 48 percent of Americans say Clinton is honest and trustworthy.
"I think the whole thing is political and it’s going to wash away eventually," Herbert Levengard, 83, a Democratic retiree from Maryland, told The Times. "There are always going to be people who mess around and look for things to yell about, but I don’t care."
The survey shows Clinton is riding, in part, on the coattails of her very popular husband, former President Bill Clinton: he polls with 76 favorability, the survey finds, and seven in 10 Democratic voters think he'll have a great deal or some influence on his wife if she were elected.
There's less certainty with Republican voters, though they're open to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush as the party's top presidential contenders, the survey shows.
Nearly three-quarters of Republican voters view George W. Bush favorably, but almost 70 percent haven't formed an opinion about Jeb, a likely presidential candidate.
49 percent of conservative Republican voters think Jeb Bush's stance on the issues is about right.
60 percent of Republican voters think having the right experience was more important in a presidential candidate; only 27 percent said they thought offering fresh ideas was more valuable; 73 percent said they preferred candidates with experience outside Washington.
The poll also has some good news for both Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Rubio:
Only 13 percent said they would rule out Walker as a contender; 17 percent said they'd nix Rubio; 26 percent won't back Huckabee; 26 percent said they wouldn't back Mr. Huckabee, and 23 percent rule out Bush.
a whopping 42 percent of Republicans said they wouldn't consider voting for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for president.
In other findings:
43 percent of Americans view the Democratic Party favorably; 29 percent said the same of the Republican Party.
63 percent of Americans said the country had gotten off track, and 66 percent said the economy was growing worse or staying the same.
On the hot-button issue of immigration, 46 percent of Republicans said illegal immigrants should be required to leave the United States, while only 16 percent of Democrats said the same.
And 71 percent of Democrats said illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the country and apply for citizenship while just 38 percent of Republicans said the same.
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
