If Obama’s polling troubles persist as 2016 approaches, Clinton might have a problem with voters who want change. Other presidential candidates have had hard going when voters were dissatisfied with the times and/or their bosses. Take for example, George H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign, which was underwater for much of that year until President Ronald Reagan’s ratings improved over the summer.

Potential problems notwithstanding, Clinton’s national image is quite strong, even though her ratings have dipped a bit since leaving Foggy Bottom. A 56 percent majority of respondents in an October Pew Research Center nationwide survey rated her favorably, somewhat lower than she tested in December 2012 (65 percent) near the end of her term as secretary of state. But there’s little indication that Republican criticisms of her handling of last September’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya, have seriously eroded her public standing. The Washington Post polling unit noted that the dip in her polls this year was concentrated among conservatives, and “despite the modest erosion in what was sky-high support, Clinton remains among the most popular secretaries of state in recent history, matching or exceeding Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright’s popularity and far more popular than Donald Rumsfeld, Warren Christopher and Alexander Haig.”