Hillary's Clinton Favorability Drops: Poll

Hillary Clinton's favorability rating dropped 12 points since last year, according to a Bloomberg poll released Thursday night.

Fifty-eight percent of those polled by Bloomberg now view her positively, down from a high of 70 percent in December.

The former secretary of state's rating is still relatively high. HuffPost Pollster's average, which combines all publicly available polling, shows that a 52 percent majority views her favorably. But that's down from the nearly 60 percent she enjoyed in November, and lower than the rating was during her tenure as secretary of state.

The change comes amid controversy over her handling of the attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi. According to Bloomberg, 47 percent of Americans disapprove of how she dealt with the situation, compared with 34 percent who approved and 19 percent who weren't sure.

Another factor , however, is her transition from statesman to much-hyped potential 2016 presidential candidate -- and in fact, her numbers are now closer to where they were at some points during 2008 .

Clinton continues to dominate early 2016 polling. HuffPost Pollster shows her taking an average 61 percent of the Democratic primary field, with Biden, her closest rival, more than 50 points behind. National polls give her an edge over rivals like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Bloomberg found that Christie is viewed favorably by half of Americans, with just 16 percent disapproving, while Rubio has a 32 percent favorable rating and a 22 percent unfavorable ratings.

Both are far less well-known than Clinton: 34 percent of Americans said they weren't sure how they felt about Christie, and 46 percent they were unsure about Rubio, compared to just 5 percent who didn't offer an opinion on Clinton.

In the latest Bloomberg poll, 40 percent of Americans said they would definitely or probably vote for her, 23 percent that they'd consider voting for her, and 34 percent that they definitely would not.

The poll surveyed 1,002 adults by phone between May 31 and June 3.