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Hillary Clinton's Favorable Rating Still Low.

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Vincent

Byline: Andrew Dugan

Synopsis: Hillary Clinton's image has not improved since hitting a personal low of 36% late last year. Clinton's favorable rating is 7 points lower than where it was on the eve of the 2016 election.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's favorability with U.S. adults is unchanged from last November -- remaining at a record low (36%).

These results, from a Sept. 4-12 Gallup poll, confirm that Clinton's image remains in a rut nearly two years after she lost the presidential contest in 2016. Her favorable rating is down seven percentage points from where it stood on the eve of the election.

Two key trends would suggest that Clinton should become more popular, not less, after the 2016 presidential election. The first is specific to Clinton. While opinions of Clinton have varied over her long time in the public limelight, she has tended to be quite popular when she is no longer seen as a purely political figure. When her husband, former President Bill Clinton, faced impeachment in 1998, for instance, Hillary Clinton's favorable rating rose to a record high of 67%. Clinton was also generally well-liked over the course of her 2009-2013 tenure as secretary of state.

By contrast, Clinton's favorable rating fell when she sought the presidency in 2008 and 2016, particularly after allegations about her improper handling of classified emails were revealed in summer 2015.

Clinton's 2016 loss has largely thrust her off the political stage, though she released a memoir of the campaign last year and has made periodic public appearances. As such, past evidence seems to suggest that her favorable rating should rise. Furthermore, this would be in line with a more general trend, whereby many losing presidential candidates see their popularity rise after the election.

Instead, opinion about Clinton remains about as sharply divided along political lines now as it was just before the 2016 election. Virtually no Republicans see her favorably (4%), and...

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