(Week of 4/7/2012) With the presidential election less than seven months away, President Barack Obama maintains a small lead over his likely GOP opponent, Mitt Romney. He leads Romney in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll by just three points.
And even though last Friday’s unemployment rate of 8.2% is now the lowest since the earliest part of President Obama’s term, it is still slightly above the rate of 7.8% recorded for that first month in office. But Americans don’t know that. Just 7% say the rate today has increased by less than a percentage point from the rate then. Nearly a third, mostly Democrats, say it has decreased; more than half say it has increased by more than 1%. Nearly a third say the rate has increased by more than 3%, something that was never the case in the last three years. Many in that group are Republicans.
The President’s approval level remains in the low 40’s. This week 41% approve of the way he is handling his job; 50% disapprove.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here
Photo source: Press Association
