Hillary Clinton enjoys comfortable leads in most national polls, but New Hampshire residents find her considerably less “likable” than Democratic rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards — a perception that could hurt her in the early primary states, some strategists and pollsters say.
A poll conducted last week by the University of New Hampshire for CNN and WMUR showed Obama twice as likable as Edwards and more than three times as likable than Clinton. In addition, 30 percent of respondents found Obama the most “believable” candidate, compared with 19 percent for Clinton and 18 percent for Edwards.
“Her two weaknesses are likability and the fact that she looks too calculating,” said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. “If she loses, that will be what did it. But to say it will doom her is a different issue.”
The same poll showed Clinton ranked first when respondents were asked which candidate has the right experience for the presidency. She also topped her rivals as the candidate with the best chance of beating a Republican in the general election.
“Likability matters, but there are also times when experience wins out, too,” said Andrew E. Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center, which conducted the poll.
Recent polls show Obama and Clinton running even in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Smith said Clinton’s problems with likability and believability are contributing to her slippage in the polls in recent weeks.
“Part of Clinton’s problem right now is she does not have a reservoir of good will among Democrats that could buffer her through this period,” Smith said.
The UNH poll is not the first to find that voters are having trouble warming up to Clinton. In a Nov. 28 Gallup Poll, 25 percent of respondents who would not vote for Clinton cited as their reason a dislike of the New York senator.
A candidate’s likability, said one pollster, “is at the core of an election,” and a lack of it can put a severe drag on a campaign.
But Clinton officials said her likability ranking can be pumped up by public appearances, and they say the candidate will be highly visible in Iowa in the 18 days before the Jan. 3 primary.
“Every place we get her to speak or Bill Clinton to talk about her, people have a much more positive feeling about her,” said Jerry Crawford, chairman of the Clinton campaign’s Midwest organization and a chief Clinton operative in Iowa. “So our challenge down the stretch is to get her to as many places as possible.”
