The thrill is gone — way gone — for the way Americans look at President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
In a new Economist/YouGov poll of public preferences, far more Americans chose “neither” over the two Democratic leaders when asked this simple question: “Which politician do you prefer?”
The answer:
Obama – 21 percent
Clinton – 25 percent
Neither – 45 percent
Clinton can take no pleasure from winning, according to the poll analysis: “Liking her better only means she is simply the lesser of two evils.”
Broken down by party, the GOP picks Clinton over Obama, mostly because they dislike him more, and the Democrats are split along racial and gender lines.
“Republicans overwhelmingly prefer Clinton to the president. But that’s only because they think he is worse. In the first question, 86% of Republicans said they preferred neither of them, but half of that group said they thought the president was worse than Clinton, compared with only 14% who thought Clinton was,” said the polling outfit.
“Democrats are closely divided on whether they prefer Clinton or the president. There are gender and race differences on this question. Women prefer Clinton more than men do; African-Americans choose the country’s first black president by three to one, while whites prefer Clinton two to one,” said the poll.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
