Hillary Clinton tops every top potential GOP presidential contender in the Bloomberg Politics poll released Monday. Another number in the poll may give an indication why she could make such a formidable 2016 opponent: She scores high on the qualities Americans prioritize when they size up presidential candidates.
The new poll tells the story. When given four candidate qualities and asked which is most important to them, 29 percent chose "shares your values"; 27 percent went with "has a vision for the future"; and 26 percent said "is a strong leader."
Coming in fourth with 15 percent is "cares about people like you."
In other words, the public is all over the place on this question. There is no one, dominant answer.
But take a look at how the public rates Clinton on the three most popular responses when pitted head to head against leading Republicans. She tops former Florida governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz on all fronts. (She also tops them on the question of who "cares about people like you.")
Take Paul, who is arguably the hottest name on the GOP side right now. The public rates Clinton better on "sharing your values" by a 49 percent to 36 percent margin. On "strong leader," she wins 52 percent to 34 percent. "Caring about people like you" tilts toward the former secretary of state 48 percent to 37 percent. And "vision for the future" is advantage Clinton, 48 percent to 38 percent.
The caveat to all this is that the question about which qualities people care about was not an open-ended one. So it's possible American prioritize other traits more -- and that Clinton is not winning on those traits.
Still, the qualities tested routinely come up as focal points in the presidential elections.
It's worth noting that as Clinton mulls a White House run, she has yet to fully -- or arguably even roughly -- spell out what her overarching campaign theme(s) would be or what her "vision for the Future" would look like, precisely.
But the fact that she already scores high on that question illustrates why she should not be underestimated.
Sean Sullivan has covered national politics for The Washington Post since 2012.
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