Bill Clinton More Popular Than Hillary, Poll Shows

A week after former President Bill Clinton conducted a triumphant retrieval in North Korea, a new survey shows the ex-president is more popular than his secretary of state wife.

A Rasmussen Reports poll released Wednesday showed 58 percent of those surveyed view the former president favorably, while 53 percent feel the same about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The poll suggested that Bill Clinton has made a public opinion recovery since last year's presidential campaign, when comments he made in support of his wife's primary campaign were criticized as racially charged.

The new poll showed 26 percent of voters have a better opinion of Clinton since he left office in 2001, versus just 8 percent who have a worse opinion of him.

It comes after Clinton returned from North Korea with two jailed American journalists last week.

The mission, at least for a couple days, overshadowed his wife's seven-country tour through Africa.

Clinton's frustration appeared to show through Monday in the Congo, when she snapped at a university student who asked what her husband thought about a Chinese loan offer to the country.

"Wait, you want to know what my husband thinks?" she replied. "My husband is not the secretary of state. I am. You ask my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband."

It was later revealed that the student was trying to ask about President Obama's opinion -- there was apparently a mistake in the name used.

The Rasmussen poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters on Sunday and Monday. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.