Poll: Majority backs Clinton 2016 bid

Fifty-seven percent in a new poll say they’d support a presidential bid by Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

The nationwide ABC News/Washington Post poll finds Clinton has stronger support for a 2016 bid among women, with 66 percent of women saying she should run for president compared to 49 percent of men backing a Clinton-2016 candidacy.

{mosads}Sixty-eight percent approve of her work as secretary of State, the second-highest margin of approval of the past five secretaries of State. 

Sixty-six percent also hold a favorable view of Clinton, a career high for the former first lady that comes after her department has faced criticism over its handling of security in Benghazi, Libya, where a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others dead.

Clinton also has heavy support in New York, where 54 percent of registered voters say they’d support a presidential bid by her in 2016, according to a Siena poll.

New York registered voters give her the same high rating, with 75 percent polled by Siena viewing her favorably, again an all-time high for Clinton.

The new polls come as speculation mounts over whether Clinton will run in 2016, with many Democrats considering her a top-flight recruit. Though she failed to gain the nomination in 2008, her performance as secretary of State has boosted her profile, and, as these polls reveal, her popularity, nationwide.

Clinton appeared last week at the Saban Forum in Washington, D.C., a conference organized by the Brookings Institution to discuss U.S.-Israeli relations, at which she gave a speech that many observers considered a prelude to such a presidential run.

And following the election, she sent letters to losing Democrats in New York congressional races, an indication that though she plans to retire from her position in President Obama’s Cabinet soon, she won’t be long out of public life.

The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted among 1,020 adults nationwide from Nov. 28-Dec. 2, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The Siena poll was conducted among 822 New York registered voters from Nov. 26-29, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.