Washington (CNN)Two respected polls released recently suggest polar opposite storylines about Hillary Clinton.
One suggests she's weathered recent controversy over her use of private email as secretary of state, and is even beginning to rebound. Another suggests her ratings have suffered as a result.
What gives?
The CBS News/New York Times poll and the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll appear to tell deeply diverging stories, but there are some commonalities in the data that reveal the real story.
Take Clinton's favorability rating. The CBS/New York Times poll finds the public about evenly split on the former first lady, with 35% holding a favorable view, 36% unfavorable and 28% in the middle. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds almost exactly the same thing: an evenly divided public, with 42% having a positive view and the same share a negative one, and 14% in the middle. Aside from the size of the neutral response, not much difference there.
Photos: Hillary Clinton email controversy
Photos: Hillary Clinton email controversy
Hillary Clinton, while U.S. secretary of state, checks her Blackberry on a military plane in October 2011. Clinton said she used a private email account for her official work at the State Department and that she did so out of convenience. But she admitted in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton email controversy
Clinton checks her phone after addressing the U.N. Security Council in March 2012.
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Clinton looks at her phone after attending a Russia-U.S. meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, in July 2010.
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Clinton types on her phone during a visit to Brasilia, Brazil, in April 2012.
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Clinton hands off her phone after arriving to meet with Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal in The Hague, Netherlands, in December 2011.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton email controversy
Clinton speaks on a phone in the lobby of a Honolulu hotel before briefing reporters on the Haiti earthquake in January 2010.
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Clinton looks at a phone with Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Philip Gordon as they wait in a Munich, Germany, conference room for a bilateral meeting with the Ukrainian President in February 2012.
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Likewise, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found 50% rated Clinton as not "honest and straightforward," while CBS and The New York Times pegged the number at 45%. Just a slight difference in statistical terms.
So why the dueling headlines?
The differences are more in the point of comparison than anything in the current findings.
In their March polls, these two had divergent results on Clinton's favorability rating. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll -- which was conducted in early March just as the email controversy was emerging and before she responded to the story in a press conference at the U.N. -- found views of Clinton tipping positive, 44% to 36% negative, with 19% neutral. Later in the month, once the story had some time to simmer, the CBS News poll found her underwater, with 37% holding an unfavorable opinion and 26% favorable.
Essentially, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal analysis is comparing Clinton's ratings now to those just before the story broke, while the CBS/New York Times poll is looking at Clinton's ratings now compared to the controversy's immediate aftermath.
It's the same thing with both polls' findings on perceptions of Clinton's honesty. The CBS/New York Times poll is again looking back to that late-March CBS News finding, after several weeks of questions about why she used a private email server, while the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is comparing views of her honesty now to results from a poll conducted last year.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The consigliere - John Podesta, one of the top liberal minds in politics, will serve as Clinton's campaign chairman. A former White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton and a top counselor for President Obama, Podesta has the stature to speak truth to power. His influential role in early structural and strategic decisions suggests that he will be a far more hands-on campaign chairman than most.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The manager - Robby Mook impressed Clinton-land when he ran Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign to primary wins in Nevada, Ohio and Indiana, and again when he led Terry McAuliffe - a longtime Clinton friend and confidant - to the Virginia governor's mansion in 2013. The numbers-focused, Vermont-native has had his hand in hiring many of top campaign strategists this time around and is pushing Clinton's sharp focus on Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The strategist - Joel Benenson started to work with Clinton in 2014, when the former secretary of state was mulling a run and piecing a staff together. The lead pollster for President Obama's winning campaign and re-election, who also worked on Bill Clinton's 1996 race, will be the top campaign strategist for Hillary Clinton. His firm is already starting to test themes and messages for this campaign.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The adman - Jim Margolis also once worked to defeat Hillary Clinton. Now, he is working with her. Margolis was a senior adviser to both President Barack Obama's successful campaigns and has worked with a number of senators, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Margolis will server as Clinton's top media adviser and ad maker.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The right-hand man - Marlon Marshall has long been Robby Mook's trusted right-hand man and is seen as a talented organizer and field director. He knows what went right -- and wrong -- during Hillary Clinton's first presidential race because he was there and will be in charge of making adjustments this time. He helped found the Democratic consulting firm 270 Strategies and during a stint at the White House was tasked with promoting Obamacare enrollment.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The fundraiser - While Hillary Clinton mulled her presidential run, Dennis Cheng pulled double duty for a short time: Working as the chief development officer at The Clinton Foundation and starting to build a 2016 fundraising team. Cheng, who is credited with raising more than $248 million for the foundation since 2011, will fill the campaign's top finance post and take on the daunting task of fortifying what is expected to be a billion-dollar campaign.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The gate-keeper - Huma Abedin has worn many hats for Hillary Clinton - intern, "body woman," chief of staff - but the title that best describes her is gate keeper and confidant. No one without the last name Clinton is said to have a tighter relationship with the former secretary of state. Although her formal title in the 2016 campaign is not yet clear, she remains one of Clinton's most trusted personal aides.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The wonk - As the campaign's top policy adviser, Jake Sullivan will look to navigate Clinton's campaign through complex issues, particularly on foreign policy matters like Iran. In 2011, Sullivan became the youngest director of policy in department history, an experience that earned him Clinton's implicit respect and trust.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The protector- Cheryl Mills is one of Hillary Clinton's closest, longest confidants. She was a top lawyer in the Clinton White House and served as Hillary Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department. She also is a member of the Clinton Foundation board of directors. While Mills isn't expected to hold a formal campaign role, she will continue to have something more important: Hillary Clinton's ear.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The enforcer - Most journalists in Washington can remember the last time they got a nasty-gram from Philippe Reines and a simple Google search will lead you to a handful. The veteran of Capitol Hill and Clinton's senior adviser at State has been a part of Clinton's communication team for years and is expected to play a role in 2016. This time, however, it will be from the outside.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The communicator - Jennifer Palmieri has a deep history with Democratic presidential elections and will serve as the campaign's communications director. A member of the team's senior staff, Palmieri is known for her cordial and direct relations with the press, dating back to her time in the first Clinton White House. She last served as President Obama's communications director, but left the White House in March to join the Clinton campaign.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The image maven - The job of retooling Hillary Clinton's image will fall primarily to Kristina Schake, a communications veteran whose background includes working for issue campaigns, multinational corporations and Hollywood stars. As Michelle Obama's communications director, Schake was credited with helping to turn the first lady into an everywoman known for dancing on national TV and touring colleges with her daughter.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The brain - Neera Tanden is currently the head of the Center for American Progress. She's worked with Clinton since 1997, serving as a deputy campaign manager in the 2000 Senate campaign, her policy director in the Senate and during the 2008 presidential campaign. The two regularly talk and because CAP is a pro-Clinton research body, Tanden will continue to wield influence inside and outside the campaign.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The institutionalist - Of all the people working on Clinton's 2016 campaign, Mandy Grunwald may know the Clintons the longest. Grunwald first worked for the Clintons in 1992, when she served as director of advertising on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Grunwald has grown closer with Hillary Clinton through the years and guided her advertising on the 2008 campaign. This time, she will be one of the top strategists to shape her message.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's team
The politico - Amanda Renteria, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2014 in Calfornia, will serve as Clinton's national political director. She was the first Latina chief of staff on Capitol Hill when she worked for Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2008.
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The techie - Stephanie Hannon left Google and her role as the company's director of product management for civic innovation and social impact to join the Clinton campaign. Hannon will oversee the implementation of Clinton's digital strategy, including both the strategic plans and technical side of building a website, apps and other web platforms for the campaign, most of which fell short to the Obama organization eight years ago.
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The two different starting points yield very different narratives.
Big picture, polling on Clinton yields one overarching finding: As the 2016 campaign gets underway, she's being viewed as a political figure once again, which is being reflected in her tempered numbers compared to a few years ago when she was a very popular secretary of state. And this much is true in both polls: A significant share of Americans have an unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton, and a sizable number have questions about her honesty.
But remember when reading poll analyses, change over time in any individual poll is completely dependent on when the questions were last asked.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was the first woman to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Before marrying Bill Clinton, she was Hillary Rodham. Here she attends Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her commencement speech at Wellesley's graduation ceremony in 1969 attracted national attention. After graduating, she attended Yale Law School.
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Rodham was a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee, whose work led to impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in 1974.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
In 1975, Rodham married Bill Clinton, whom she met at Yale Law School. He became the governor of Arkansas in 1978. In 1980, the couple had a daughter, Chelsea.
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Arkansas' first lady, now using the name Hillary Rodham Clinton, wears her inaugural ball gown in 1985.
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The Clintons celebrate Bill's inauguration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1991. He was governor from 1983 to 1992, when he was elected President.
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Bill Clinton comforts his wife on the set of "60 Minutes" after a stage light broke loose from the ceiling and knocked her down in January 1992.
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In June 1992, Clinton uses a sewing machine designed to eliminate back and wrist strain. She had just given a speech at a convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
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During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton jokes with her husband's running mate, Al Gore, and Gore's wife, Tipper, aboard a campaign bus.
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Clinton accompanies her husband as he takes the oath of office in January 1993.
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The Clintons share a laugh on Capitol Hill in 1993.
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Clinton unveils the renovated Blue Room of the White House in 1995.
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Clinton waves to the media in January 1996 as she arrives for an appearance before a grand jury in Washington. The first lady was subpoenaed to testify as a witness in the investigation of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. The Clintons' business investment was investigated, but ultimately they were cleared of any wrongdoing.
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The Clintons hug as Bill is sworn in for a second term as President.
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The first lady holds up a Grammy Award, which she won for her audiobook "It Takes a Village" in 1997.
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The Clintons dance on a beach in the U.S. Virgin Islands in January 1998. Later that month, Bill Clinton was accused of having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Clinton looks on as her husband discusses the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 26, 1998. Clinton declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." In August of that year, Clinton testified before a grand jury and admitted to having "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky, but he said it did not constitute sexual relations because they had not had intercourse. He was impeached in December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
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The first family walks with their dog, Buddy, as they leave the White House for a vacation in August 1998.
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President Clinton makes a statement at the White House in December 1998, thanking members of Congress who voted against his impeachment. The Senate trial ended with an acquittal in February 1999.
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Clinton announces in February 2000 that she will seek the U.S. Senate seat in New York. She was elected later that year.
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Clinton makes her first appearance on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Sen. Clinton comforts Maren Sarkarat, a woman who lost her husband in the September 11 terrorist attacks, during a ground-zero memorial in October 2001.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Clinton holds up her book "Living History" before a signing in Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 2003.
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Clinton and another presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, applaud at the start of a Democratic debate in 2007.
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Obama and Clinton talk on the plane on their way to a rally in Unity, New Hampshire, in June 2008. She had recently ended her presidential campaign and endorsed Obama.
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Obama is flanked by Clinton and Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a news conference in Chicago in December 2008. He had designated Clinton to be his secretary of state.
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Clinton, as secretary of state, greets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a meeting just outside Moscow in March 2010.
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The Clintons pose on the day of Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010.
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In this photo provided by the White House, Obama, Clinton, Biden and other members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Clinton checks her Blackberry inside a military plane after leaving Malta in October 2011. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. The account, fed through its own server, raises security and preservation concerns. Clinton later said she used a private domain out of "convenience," but admits in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Clinton arrives for a group photo before a forum with the Gulf Cooperation Council in March 2012. The forum was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Obama and Clinton bow during the transfer-of-remains ceremony marking the return of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.
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Clinton ducks after a woman threw a shoe at her while she was delivering remarks at a recycling trade conference in Las Vegas in 2014.
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Clinton, now running for President again, performs with Jimmy Fallon during a "Tonight Show" skit in September 2015.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Clinton testifies about the Benghazi attack during a House committee meeting in October 2015. "I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she said during the 11-hour hearing. "I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done." Months earlier, Clinton had acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" as cited by an Accountability Review Board, and she said that her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders shares a lighthearted moment with Clinton during a Democratic presidential debate in October 2015. It came after Sanders gave his take on the Clinton email scandal. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails. Let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
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Clinton is reflected in a teleprompter during a campaign rally in Alexandria, Virginia, in October 2015.
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Clinton walks on her stage with her family after winning the New York primary in April.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
After Clinton became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, this photo was posted to her official Twitter account. "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want -- even president," Clinton said. "Tonight is for you."
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Obama hugs Clinton after he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The president said Clinton was ready to be commander in chief. "For four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline," he said, referring to her stint as his secretary of state.
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Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
Clinton arrives at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony in New York on September 11. Clinton, who was diagnosed with pneumonia two days before, left early after feeling ill. A video appeared to show her stumble as Secret Service agents helped her into a van.
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Clinton addresses a campaign rally in Cleveland on November 6, two days before Election Day. She went on to lose Ohio -- and the election -- to her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
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After conceding the presidency to Trump in a phone call earlier, Clinton addresses supporters and campaign workers in New York on Wednesday, November 9. Her defeat marked a stunning end to a campaign that appeared poised to make her the first woman elected US president.
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