What The American Public Thinks About Hillary Clinton

It's pretty obvious that if Hillary Clinton wants to run for president the Democrats are ready to give her that opportunity -- with poll after poll showing she is the overwhelming choice of Democrats across the nation. This brings up the question -- what does the general public think of Hillary?

The Pew Research Center tried to answer that question with a new survey (taken of 1,002 nationwide adults between February 27th and March 2nd -- with a 3.2 point margin of error).

The numbers didn't turn out to bad. In fact, I think most politicians would be happy to have equally good numbers. Most people find her likable, with only 36% saying she is hard to like. In addition, 49% say she is tough and has new ideas. But perhaps most important, 56% say she is honest. As expected, the worst numbers are from Republicans, but even among them about 55% view her as tough.

It is also interesting that fewer people think her gender will be an obstacle for her. Back in 2008, 35% thought being a woman would hurt Clinton, while 60% said it would not. But now only 20% say her gender will hurt her, while 77% say it won't. It looks like the idea of a woman being president has grown on people in the last six years.

The most amusing part of the survey (at least for me) was when the respondents were asked if they knew how old Hillary Clinton is currently. While a majority were able to at least put her age in the right decade, a surprising 40% could not do that. About 6% thought she was under 50, while 31% said she was between 50 and 59. About 3% said she was 70 or older.

The group that really had little clue as to her age was the younger people (18 to 29). About 16% said she was under 50, and 53% said she was between 50 and 59. Older people were the best at knowing her age, with 71% of 50 to 64 year-olds and 70% of those 65 or older putting her age as between 60 and 69.

Also amusing was the fact that more Republicans knew Hillary's age than Democrats. While 67% of Republicans got it right, only 60% of Democrats did.

For those of you who don't know -- Hillary Clinton was born on October 26,1947 and  is currently 66 years-old.