Also, if you are just wanting to rotate the object a certain way and not worried about the rotation handle, you could...

1. Select your object
2. Display>Transform Display>Rotate Pivots
3. Switch to wireframe so you can see the rotate pivot
4. Create a primitive, such as a cube.
5. Snap the cube to the rotate pivot of your object
6. Rotate the cube until it lines up with your object
7. Parent the object to the cube (select object, then cube, then press p)
8. Now you can rotate the cube and the object will rotate as well.