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Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
A Study in Contrasts: Clinton and Guiliani
Hillary Scores High with Democrats, Less So with the General Public; Rudy Has Broad Appeal but Weaker GOP Support
Sen. Hillary Clinton is by far the most popular presidential candidate among her own party's voters, but has among the lowest overall favorable ratings of the leading candidates. In sharp contrast, the front-running Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, evokes relatively modest enthusiasm from the GOP base, but is as broadly popular with all voters as any candidate in either party.
Overall, 55% of voters who offer an opinion of Clinton express a favorable view of her, while 45% have unfavorable opinion. By comparison, roughly two-thirds of voters able to rate Giuliani (65%) and fellow Republican Fred Thompson (66%) – as well as Clinton's Democratic rival Barack Obama (64%) – express favorable opinions of these candidates.
While Clinton is less popular overall than other presidential contenders, she is more intensely popular with her own base. Nearly nine-in-ten Democratic voters (88%) who offered an opinion of Clinton express a positive view – with 38% saying they have a very favorable opinion. That is the highest percentage that any of the seven 2008 candidates tested – Democrats or Republicans – receives from their parties' voters.
Giuliani finds himself in a very different position than Clinton. He has broad appeal – nearly two-thirds of independent voters (64%) and almost half of Democratic voters (47%) able to rate him view him positively. But he lags behind Clinton in popularity among his own party's voters: 84% of Republican voters have a positive impression of Giuliani, with just 21% saying they have a very favorable opinion.
Thompson, who is expected to enter the Republican race next month, is not widely known, but he has a better image among Republicans than does Giuliani. Nine-in-ten Republican voters able to rate Thompson express a favorable opinion of him; 31% have a very favorable opinion of the former senator and TV actor.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Aug. 1-18 among 3,002 adults, finds that President Bush's job approval rating has remained stable through the summer. Currently, 31% approve of Bush's job performance while 59% disapprove. In both June and July, 29% approved of Bush's performance while 61% disapproved. Bush's highest rating for 2007 came in April (35% approve).
Nonetheless, more people approve of Bush's job performance than say the same about Congress. Just 21% approve of the way Congress is handling its job, while about three times that number disapprove (65%). Even Democrats take a critical view of Congress' performance: 67% of conservative and moderate Democrats, and 56% of liberal Democrats, disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job.