(Week of 9/8/2012) The latest Economist/YouGov Poll provides some good news for President Obama and the Democrats in the wake of their national convention last week. Not only did President Obama get a small bounce in support in his race against Republican challenger Mitt Romney, but the poll also suggests that enthusiasm among Obama voters increased substantially because of the convention.
With respondents leaning toward voting for one of the two candidates added in, President Obama leads challenger Mitt Romney 49%-45% among registered voters. This result represents a three-point increase in the President’s lead – last week he led Romney by 47%-46%.
In addition to increasing the president’s support, the convention seems to have had the effect of ginning up enthusiasm among Obama supporters. In this week’s poll, 68% of Obama supporters say they are "extremely" or "very" enthusiastic about voting for President this year, a nine-point increase over last week. Obama supporters still lag behind Romney supporters in enthusiasm levels, however.
Moreover, the percentage of Obama supporters who attribute their support to positive rather than negative reasons has gone up this week. This week, 74% of Obama supporters say they are mostly voting for Barack Obama while only 24% say they are mostly voting against Mitt Romney. Last week, those percentages were 69% and 29%, respectively. Importantly, Obama supporters have always exhibited higher rates of positive support for their candidate than Romney supporters, the majority of whom consistently say their vote is mostly a vote against Obama.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here
Photo source: Press Association
