Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national poll.
Also, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday indicates that Republicans are much more enthusiastic than Democrats to vote.
By 47 percent to 45 percent, Americans say Obama is a better president than George W. Bush was. But that two-point margin is down from a 23-point advantage one year ago.
“Democrats may want to think twice about bringing up former President George W. Bush’s name while campaigning this year,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
“But that doesn’t mean that Americans regret their decision to put Obama in the White House in 2008. By a 50 to 42 percent margin, the public says that Obama has done a better job than Sen. John McCain would have done if he had won. And by a 10-point margin, Americans also say that Joe Biden has done a better job than Sarah Palin would have done as vice president,” Holland added.
According to the poll, 45 percent of the public approves of the job Obama is doing as president, up three points from late last month, with 52 percent disapproving. Fifty-nine percent of independents disapprove of how Obama is handling his duties, with 37 percent giving him a thumbs up.
According to the poll, another gap also exists: the enthusiasm gap. Most Republicans say they are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting this year. But only a third of Democrats feel the same way.
The CNN/Opinion Research national poll was conducted Tuesday through Thursday, with 1,008 adult Americans, including 938 registered voters and 504 likely voters, questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, with a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points for likely voters.
