Democrats now view McCain much more positively than they did two years ago, with their 71% favorable ratings representing a 22-percentage-point increase since then. Republicans’ opinions have grown more negative, though their 10-point decline (from 61% to 51%) is about half as large as the Democratic increase. Independents’ opinions of McCain are virtually the same as they were two years ago.
The net effect of these changes is that McCain’s 58% favorable rating among all Americans is improved from 2015 and is his best since a 64% reading in November 2008, shortly after he lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama. Since Gallup first asked about him in 1999, McCain’s favorable rating has been as high as 67%, including in March 2008 after he clinched the Republican presidential nomination and in February 2000 after he defeated George W. Bush in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.
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