A recent CNN poll shows that Americans might be more inclined to support Hillary if she uses her maiden name.
This includes a solid 7% increase in her favorability rating among Republicans, whose support ballooned to 23% if she put "Rodham" in her name.
A similar jump was noticed among so-called Independents as well, as "Hillary Rodham Clinton" was favored by 48%, as compared with 42% for just "Hillary Clinton."
Ironically, the name change actually makes Democrats - who one would think would support the feminist idea of a woman keeping her last name - like her less, with her approval rating slipping one point, from 77% to 76%.
The only scenario that seems to make sense, and where the use of "Rodham" didn't help Hillary is with Southern voters, as "Hillary Clinton" got a favorable rating from 52%, compared with 45% for "Hillary Rodham Clinton."
In the rest of the country, the opposite was true: 43% of all people polled gave "Hillary Clinton" a positive rating and 53% rated "Hillary Rodham Clinton" positively.
All this Rodham talk is reminiscent of when then-Governor Clinton lost re-election in 1980, and much of the blame was assigned to his wife, Ms. Hillary Rodham, because she didn't take his name. But when Bill ran again for Arkansas governor two years later, she had changed her name to Mrs. Hillary Clinton, and the happy couple returned to Little Rock. Of course, when Bill won the White House a decade later, Hillary immediately added Rodham to her title. Oh how times change. A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll in January 1993 ask Americans "Should the first lady be known as Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton?" An overwhelming 62% picked the shorter name, while a paltry 6% chose HRC.
