Poll: Wives better-liked than candidates

WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- Both Michelle Obama and Ann Romney are more popular with the U.S. public than their husbands, a poll released Wednesday indicated.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's approval rating is at a record high with her best numbers since she got a national reputation as the wife of Democratic presidential candidate in 1992, the ABC News/Washington Post poll said.

More than two-thirds of respondents, 69 percent, said they view Obama favorably, and only 24 percent have a negative view. She outscored President Obama by 13 points on favorability and by 16 points on the other side.

Fewer people had an opinion on Romney, wife of the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Forty percent said they have a favorable view and 30 percent a negative one, while her husband's approval rating was 35-47 in a poll last week.

Thirty percent said they have no opinion on Ann Romney while only 7 percent said that of the first lady.

Clinton's approval rating was 65-27, far higher than in 2008, when she lost the fight for the Democratic nomination.

The poll found a large partisan divide with Democrats almost unanimous in approval of Obama and Clinton and few Republicans agreeing. While President Obama does much better with women than men, the only gender gap this poll showed was that Clinton has an advantage of 7 percentage points with women.

Langer Research Associates interviewed a sample of 1,008 adults between April 18 and Apirl 22. The margin of error is 3.5 points for the entire sample.