Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Saturday, May 18, 2013

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 percent (50%) now disapprove.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Democrats approve, while 85% of Republicans disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 39% approve, and 57% disapprove.

Scott Rasmussen says the key to measuring the impact of recent controversies “over the coming months will be the president's job approval ratings. He's been hovering around the 50 percent mark for much of his second term. Those numbers are not likely to sink rapidly because of the partisan reality behind the numbers.”

Today’s figures include 25% who Strongly Approve of the way Obama is performing as president and 37% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12 (see trends).

Results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).

Check out our review of last week’s key polls to see “What They Told Us.”

On this weekend’s episode of What America Thinks, Scott Rasmussen looks at public reaction to the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, the Justice Department's surveillance of reporters and the Benghazi hearings. Immigration reform and implementation of the president’s health care law are discussion topics. The show can be seen at 4:30 Pacific Time today in Los Angeles on KCBS and in Phoenix on CBS5. Tomorrow morning, it will be on WLNY in New York, KTVU in San Francisco, and WBIN in Boston. Overall, the weekly television show airs on 64 stations nationwide. Find a station near you.

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In his weekly newspaper column, Scott Rasmussen says that the controversies swirling around the White House will doom the president’s effort to restore faith in the federal government.

If you’d like Scott to speak to your organization, meeting or conference, please contact Premiere Speakers. 

Rasmussen Reports is a media company whose work is followed by millions on a wide variety of platforms. We regularly release our work at RasmussenReports.com, through a daily email newsletter, a nationally syndicated TV show, a nationally syndicated radio news service, an online video service and a weekly newspaper column distributed by Creators Syndicate.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans believe big-time college sports corrupt the higher education process. Fifty percent (50%) think most major college sports programs break recruiting rules on a regular basis.

College football coaches earn a lot more than professors. Fifty-seven (57%) of Americans favor limiting coach’s salaries to the level of a professor. Also, 50% believe the schools should pay royalties to their athletes.

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.

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Seventy-five percent (75%) of voters in the survey sample are white, 11% black and nine percent (9%) Hispanic. Additionally, 33% of the voters are Republicans, while 37% are Democrats.

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). Pollsters for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have cited our "unchallenged record for both integrity and accuracy."

Learn more about the Rasmussen Reports track record over the years.

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.