Saturday, October 18, 2014
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Obama's job performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove (see trends).
The latest figures include 23% who Strongly Approve of the way Obama is performing as president and 39% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16.
Results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).
See “What They Told Us” in surveys this past week.
Few voters believe the United States and its allies are winning the war against the radical Islamic State militants, but a strong majority remains confident that ultimate victory is likely.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has crossed the 50% mark now in his bid for reelection in Kentucky.
The race for governor of Arkansas is tighter now.
Check out our latest video update of the week’s major election polls.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters continue to believe most members of Congress are reelected because election rules are rigged to benefit incumbents.
(More below)
Do Americans think the country is ready to deal with the deadly Ebola virus?
Most Americans still believe buying a home is a family’s best investment.
For those who are struggling to make increased mortgage payments, Americans say they should sell their home and find a less expensive one rather than have the government step in and help.
(More to come)
Some readers wonder how we come up with our job approval ratings for the president since they often don’t show as dramatic a change as some other pollsters do. It depends on how you ask the question and whom you ask.
To get a sense of longer-term job approval trends for the president, Rasmussen Reports compiles our tracking data on a full month-by-month basis.
Rasmussen Reports has been a pioneer in the use of automated telephone polling techniques, but many other firms still utilize their own operator-assisted technology (see methodology).
Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Platinum Members.
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $3.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.
