Barack Obama's Better Half [View all]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/07/michelle-obama-popularity-108593.html#.U7tDyWtdWmQ

Michelle Obama is a popular first lady. On average, her favorable ratings have been higher than those of her predecessors, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton. This may well reflect the fact that more so than other first ladies, Mrs. Obama has a stand-alone personal image. Unlike other recent first ladies, her popularity has not fallen or risen with her husband’s.

How popular is Michelle? A steady two-thirds of the public has held a favorable view of Mrs. Obama, according to nationwide Gallup poll and Pew Research Center surveys, for most of her time as first lady. At 69 percent, her average Pew Research Center favorable ratings have been only somewhat higher than Laura Bush’s (65 percent) but considerably higher than Hillary Clinton’s (55 percent) during Bill Clinton’s term in office.

Laura Bush was never a polarizing first lady, but views of her soured somewhat near the end of her husband’s unpopular second term. In late 2007, her favorable rating fell to 54 percent from a high of 70 percent.

Hillary’s ratings rose and fell substantially over the course of her time in the White House, reaching a low of 42 percent in early 1996 as fallout from her spearheading her husband’s unpopular health care reform effort. But they rebounded over the course of Bill Clinton’s second term, especially during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when the public rallied sympathetically to the first lady. Her ratings slipped again afterward, even as Bill’s approval ratings remained fairly high.