Who do you think would win, Hillary Clinton or First Lady Michelle Obama?
That’s the question that Rasmussen asked hypothetically to voters in a bid to gauge how the Democratic presidential primary would run by suggesting a potential challenger to current favorite Hillary Clinton – the First Lady herself.
The results were quite surprising (or not, depending on how you view the Obamas) as it shows that if Michelle Obama runs for president in 2016, she will give Hillary Clinton a run for her money.
The new Rasmussen Report telephone survey found that in the theoretical matchup, 56% of Likely Democratic Voters chose Clinton and 22% chose Obama.
Poll: Michelle Obama does better against Hillary Clinton than Elizabeth Warren would http://t.co/XotB1Vf4G9 pic.twitter.com/j0j75apJxl
— Vox (@voxdotcom) May 15, 2015
While Clinton still enjoyed a sizeable lead, the numbers underline the fact that the First Lady has a better standing among voters than likely Democratic primary candidates Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.
Sanders has already announced his presidential plans while O’Malley might announce his plans later in the month.
Obama’s numbers are also theoretically better than Elizabeth Warren’s or Joe Biden’s.
With black voters, it’s understandable that Obama got 44% of their support while Clinton got 36%.
But among all the voters surveyed, Clinton clinched 37% of their support, Obama got 17% while 40% of the voters prefer another candidate.
It’s not surprising that Obama showed good numbers in the polls. The First Lady is one of the more popular political figures around, always averaging a 67% approval rating.
Of those polled, 34% think she’s done as worse as her predecessors and 30% believe she did better than the other first ladies. The rest think she’s the same as the others.
She also does well with women voters who view her in a far better light than male voters do. Interestingly, the report also shows that the older the voter, the less like s/he approves of the First Lady.
Obama’s numbers are clearly not enough to get past Clinton’s strong lead but it’s impressive enough to bear thinking.
However, the First Lady herself has definitively stated that she has no plans to run for president.
Reports say that once President Obama’s term ends, the whole family will be relocating to New York. The president has plans to run a foundation or might even go back to teaching law. The first lady also has a lot of options available to her, both in the private sector or in a nonprofit organization.