Hillary Clinton’s Favorability Hit Over Benghazi

Hillary Clinton’s favorability rating dropped significantly in a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday, as the months-long investigation into the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, have begun to drag on the former secretary of State. Yesterday we analyzed early head-to-head match-ups against GOP 2016 hopefuls and concluded that Senator Rand Paul R-Ky, ran ahead of other GOP contenders against Hillary Clinton due to his strength among independents and young voters 18 – 25.

According to the survey, 52 percent said they have a favorable view of Clinton, against 40 unfavorable. Although that is still above water, that’s down from her all-time high of 61 percent favorable and 34 unfavorable measured by Quinnipiac in February of this year. Peter A. Brown, director of polling, said:

Her score is down substantially from her all-time high score in February. The drop in favorability is substantial among men, Republicans and independent voters. One reason for her drop may be that 48 percent of voters blame her either a little or a lot for the death of the American ambassador in Benghazi.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa R-CA, this week subpoenaed State Department documents related to the Obama administration’s talking points about the attack. The State Department has already released more than 100 emails related to the talking points, but Issa called the release “incomplete,” and for good reason. All of the emails released thus far were days after the attack, and did not name the boss specifically who objected to terrorist language, which we can only speculate to be Hillary Clinton.

Furthermore, the emails did not include correspondences from the State Department to White House officials immediately after the attack, which would be needed in order to ascertain whether or not anyone from the Obama reelection campaign had a say in the talking points. We now know them to be false, as well as the statements made to both the Senate and House committees by Clinton to be lies.

Still, Clinton remains the frontrunner in the 2016 presidential race.

Quinnipiac polled two potential Republican challengers: Sen. Rand Paul R-KY, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Paul clocked in at 32 percent favorable and 24 percent unfavorable. Bush was at 29 percent positive and 29 percent negative.

Senator Rand Paul is generally unknown to many Americans, but Jeb Bush clearly is not. Clinton leads Paul 49 percent to 41 percent in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up and leads Bush 48 to 40. Brown added:

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains the queen of the 2016 hill at this point, but the wide gap between her and some of the leading Republican contenders on favorability may be closing, as her overall favorability has taken a hit.

Vice President Biden suffers from a negative approval rating, at 37 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable. On Biden, whom I referred to yesterday as “inconsequential,” Brown said:

If Ms. Clinton chooses not to run in 2016, the potential Democratic field could include a somewhat unpopular vice president and a number of new faces who are unknown to the vast majority of Americans.

It is early, of course, but the survey shows that Clinton is not the teflon queen that the media would have Americans believe her to be. She has already been damaged, and the ads, and further hearings have yet to truly begin.

The Quinnipiac poll of 1,419 registered voters was conducted between May 22 and May 28 and has a 2.6 percentage point margin of error

Related articles

• Early Polling Shows Paul Runs Stronger Than Rubio Against Hillary (richardbaris.wordpress.com)