LARGE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY WOULD HAVE PREFERRED A HILLARY PRESIDENCY PROBABLY WOULD HAVE HATED A HILLARY PRESIDENCY

This is getting some attention right now:

The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer's remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama.

Interesting. But let's look at the numbers:

...34 percent say things would be better under a Clinton administration....

Republicans are slightly more inclined than the national average to think the U.S. would be better off with Clinton running the country, with 39 percent saying so....

A plurality of Tea Party supporters -- 44 percent -- say the U.S. would be better off with Hillary Clinton as president, even though 59 percent of those respondents have an unfavorable impression of her....

Republicans and teabaggers think she would have done a better job. But if she'd actually become president and done a better job -- that is, if she'd managed the economic crisis better -- it would have been by doing things they absolutely despise, like stimulating the economy more effectively, fighting for more mortgage relief (hear Rick Santelli howl!), and reining in Wall Streeters. Which means they'd hate her now. (Of course, it's really hard to imagine Republicans and Blue Dogs allowing her to do much in this direction.)

Or, needless to say, the wife of the master triangulator might have deferred to the resurgent right, wholly or partly. Which means we'd have about the level of neo-Hooverism we have now, or (and I'm not ruling this out) a lot more. Which, popularity-wise, would have made her either just like Barack Obama or just like Scott Walker.

So she's popular only because it's a fantasy. The reality would have been very different.