--- title: Americans Think Bush, Clinton Seem Presidential in Poll description: A poll showed that many Americans could most readily envision Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush as president. canonical: https://time.com/4046021/hillary-clinton-jeb-bush-poll/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-23T13:03:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:49.461Z article:section: Politics og:title: Americans Think Bush, Clinton Seem Presidential in Poll og:description: Having the right last name apparently helps. og:url: https://time.com/4046021/hillary-clinton-jeb-bush-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6d34a313be84932/698864e3e20a8738cca8d656/hillary-clinton-presidential.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: US Vice President Joe Biden (L) talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as US President Barack Obama hosts a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on December 7, 2009. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Think Bush, Clinton Seem Presidential in Poll twitter:description: Having the right last name apparently helps. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6d34a313be84932/698864e3e20a8738cca8d656/hillary-clinton-presidential.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans Think Bush, Clinton Seem Presidential in Poll > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/L3I0gpwt.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2015-04-09. Watch the top 10 moments from Hillary Clinton's career in politics._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 23, 2015 1:03 PM UTC  US Vice President Joe Biden (L) talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as US President Barack Obama hosts a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on December 7, 2009. US Vice President Joe Biden (L) talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as US President Barack Obama hosts a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on December 7, 2009. JEWEL SAMAD—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 23, 2015 1:03 PM UTC Having the same last name as a recent president apparently helps Americans picture you as president as well. A [Bloomberg Politics poll](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-09-23/americans-see-hillary-clinton-jeb-bush-as-presidential-material-bloomberg-poll-finds) released Wednesday showed that many Americans could most readily envision Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Jeb Bush in the White House, while they were least able to see Donald Trump as commander-in-chief. The poll took a different tack than the usual surveys of favorability or support, simply asking Americans whether they have “a realistic vision of that person being president of the United States.” Clinton came in tops with 47% saying yes and 52% saying no; followed by Bush, with 40% saying yes and 57% saying no. By comparison, about a third could picture Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in the White House, and only 29% could envision a President Donald Trump. The poll was conducted on 1,001 U.S. adults from Sept. 18-21 by the Iowa-based Selzer & Co. for Bloomberg Politics. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4046021/hillary-clinton-jeb-bush-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4046021/hillary-clinton-jeb-bush-poll/"},"headline":"Americans Think Bush, Clinton Seem Presidential in Poll","datePublished":"2015-09-23T13:03:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:49.461Z","description":"A poll showed that many Americans could most readily envision Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush as president.","url":"https://time.com/4046021/hillary-clinton-jeb-bush-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Polls","Bernie Sanders","jeb bush","Polling","Donald Trump","Dr. Benjamin S. 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