Polls

Former President Clinton is more popular than either of his successors, according to a new Gallup poll.

Republicans have a five-point lead over Democrats in a generic congressional ballot, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows.

A new Quinnipiac University poll finds President Obama’s approval rating at the lowest point of his presidency. The poll found 44 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while 48 percent disapprove.

Among independents the gap is even wider — 52 percent disapprove to just 38 percent who approve of Obama’s performance.

A Q-poll in May found 48 percent of voters approving of the president, while 43 disapproved. Voters disapprove of the president’s handling of almost every major issue polled, from the economy to the Gulf oil spill to illegal immigration. Voters disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy 56 percent to 39 percent. On illegal immigration, voters disapprove by a margin of 58-30 percent.

Against an unnamed Republican candidate for president in 2012, Obama is behind 39 percent to 36 percent, with 13 percent of respondents saying it would depend on who the GOP candidate is. 

“In politics a month is a lifetime, and we have 28 months until November of 2012. But politicians with reelect numbers at 40 percent bear watching,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. 

One piece of good news for the president out of these latest numbers — by a margin of 42 percent to 32 percent, voters said Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush.

A new Gallup poll appears to offer some good midterm news for Democrats.

The party has jumped out to a six-point lead on the generic ballot question — Democrats lead 49 percent to 43 percent over Republicans in Gallup’s latest tracking data.

It’s the first statistically significant difference Gallup has measured on the question since it began weekly tracking in March. 

The survey polled 1,535 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Gallup doesn’t screen for likely voters until closer to election day.

A couple of things might dampen Democratic enthusiasm with these numbers. While the generic ballot question is generally a solid indicator of a broader national trend, this is still a sample of registered voters, not of likely voters. 

And Republican enthusiasm for this fall’s elections spiked in the latest tracking — a full 51 percent of Republicans said they are “very enthusiastic” about voting in 2010. That’s up from 40 percent a week ago.

Democratic enthusiasm remained unchanged from a week ago, with 28 percent of Democrats saying they are “very enthusiastic.”

Gallup points to the passage of Wall Street reform as the likely cause of the shift. Gallup noted a similar increase in Republican enthusiasm right after passage of the healthcare bill.

But if financial reform gave Democrats a bounce on the generic ballot and among independents, as Gallup suggests, the numbers don’t indicate it did much to motivate the party’s own voters. 

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) was the only potential GOP challenger that President Obama solidly beat in the survey.

A Gallup poll released Thursday showed independents continue to favor the Republicans by a 10-point average margin for this fall's midterm elections.

By a 45-35 percent spread, independent registered voters said they would vote for the Republican congressional candidate in their district. Since March, the margin of independents' preference for Republicans over Democrats has fluctuated between 8 and 12 percent.

The poll is one sign the GOP could have momentum heading into the fall midterm elections. Several Republican leaders have predicted the GOP will take back the House and make significant gains in the Senate.

But Democrats have pointed to several Republican losses in recent special elections, saying Democratic candidates have run better campaigns and the GOP's message is falling on deaf ears.

The June Gallup survey, which is a monthly average of its daily tracking polls, shows that about 20 percent of independents are undecided or favor a third-party candidate, meaning both major parties have opportunities to pick up their support of a greater portion of the key voting bloc.

A new Public Policy Polling survey has Democrats leading on the generic Congressional ballot for the first time since December.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to a new poll showing him with a double-digit lead.

A majority of voters see problems with the two-party political system, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

According to the poll, more than 80 percent of people have a problem with the current system, with 31 percent advocating for a third party. Only 15 percent believe the two-party system works fairly well.

The poll was taken May 6-10 and will be released in full Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, a new Public Policy poll is gives President Barack Obama his highest approval rating since October.

The poll shows that 50 percent give the president a favorable rating while 46 percent disapprove. 

Rand Paul holds a wide lead in Kentucky's GOP Senate primary, but Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorsed his opponent.