Hillary Clinton: Competence Still Matters

For Democrats, Hillary Clinton remains the Competency Candidate.  She holds an almost two-to-one lead over her two nearest rivals on net performance scores (Clinton, 47%; Obama, 18%; Edwards, 7%).

In fact, the core strengths of her brand identity are even better than in our last survey.  Fifty-five percent of Democrats say she is most prepared to be president, up five points since April.  Forty-one percent believe she will have the most respect from other countries, an improvement of seven points.  Clinton increased her standing on every performance measure with the exception of an identical 48 percent in both polls for “most intelligent.”

Perhaps even more importantly, Clinton has begun to successfully address her biggest brand weakness – personality.  Though she continues to trail Obama in this area, Clinton’s net personality score rose four points to 19 percent.  Her most significant gain on this brand dimension is on likeability (up nine points to 16 percent).  On the one personality area where she led in April – looking most presidential – Clinton again improved her score, from 23 percent to 30 percent.

What We Said In April

• Hillary Clinton is an intelligent, well-prepared and experienced candidate.  In a single word, Clinton has competence.
• If Clinton were a car, she’d probably be a Volvo stationwagon: solid, reliable and there to get the job done, not make you fall in love.
• If Clinton were a technology company, she’d be Microsoft – dominant and all business.
• Finally, Clinton may very well be the New York Yankees of the political world – great pitching, hits for power and has an excellent pedigree.

Brand Attributes

• Looks most presidential
• Most prepared
• Most relevant experience
• Most international respect
• Lacks warmth and personal charm
• Not very likable
• Not most trustworthy