WASHINGTON – It appears the Nobel Peace Prize
was not enough to curb the sharp drop in President Barack Obama's popularity in the United States, as a new popularity poll has US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of him.
A Gallup survey published Thursday shows that Obama, who began his tenure with a 78% favorable rating, among the highest ever measured, has fallen nine months later to 56%. Clinton, who came into office with a 65% favorable rating, dropped to 62%.
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Clinton makes certain to demonstrate her loyalty to the president on every occasion, and the two officials have put past differences from the Democratic Party elections behind them. After the announcement that Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Clinton was asked whether she thought her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, deserved to receive the prize before Obama. She ignored the question about her husband and said Obama was worthy of the prize.
Despite her popularity among voters of both parties, the secretary of state declared that she has no plans to run for president in the future.
"I have absolutely no interest in running for president again," she told ABC News. "No. None. I know that's hard for some people to believe. But, you know, I just don't."
Clinton said she feels she has had "the most amazing life" in public service. "And for the last 17 years, ever since my husband started running for president, I have been, you know, in the spotlight, working hard."
Clinton said that her current job as the top US diplomat "is incredibly, all-encompassing" and that when it is over, she may look forward to "taking some time off."
Nine years ago, in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky affair in 1998, Clinton's favorable ratings in the same poll stood at 67%. The survey's conductors noted that Clinton's predecessors as secretaries of state, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, were also more than President George W. Bush for a long period of time.
AFP contributed to this report
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