Hillary Clinton retains strong appeal to American Women in lead-up to 2016 White House race: Gallup

Fifty-six percent of U.S. women have a favorable opinion of likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, giving her a decided advantage among half the population that other candidates do not share, found a Gallup poll released Friday.

Clinton owes much of her strong early position to her appeal to women. Not only is there a gender gap in Clinton's overall favorable rating, but all major female demographic groups view Clinton more positively than do their male counterparts, including by age, education, race, marital status and partisanship, according to Gallup.

Among all major potential 2016 presidential candidates from either party that Gallup tested in the recent poll, Clinton has the highest favorable rating by far - at 56 - among U.S. women.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, another possible Democratic candidate, ranks a distant second among women in overall favorability, at 41 percent, followed by former Florida governor and possible Republican nominee Jeb Bush, with 32 percent. Clinton' s +24 net favorable rating also is substantially better than any other possible candidate's rating.

Reflecting her high visibility relative to her other potential rivals in the 2016 campaign, Clinton's 44 percent favorable rating among men is higher than any other potential candidate, although her -1 net favorable rating trails several Republican candidates' ratings.

Clinton must first win the Democratic nomination before Americans can elect her president. And currently Democratic women and men view her more positively than any of her potential challengers for the nomination. Eighty-three percent of Democratic women view Clinton favorably.

The wild card, however, for the White House hopeful is her sole use of a private email account to conduct government business, which is raising hackles among critics who say it could hurt her run for the presidency.

While it's still very early in the campaign, the real problem is that the scandal re-enforces the perception among some that the Clintons -- both Hillary and her husband, former President Bill Clinton -- are secretive, experts said.

Analysts, pundits and political prognosticators said Republicans will likely use the issue to add to their narrative of Clinton, and that could hurt Clinton politically.

But on the other hand, the scandal has not yet hurt her, signaling the possibility that the issue could fizzle out by the time her campaign comes into full swing. Endit