Election 2012: Generic Republican 48%, Obama 40%

President Obama earns his lowest level of support yet against a generic Republican in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up for the week ending Sunday, August 28. 

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds the generic Republican earning 48% of the vote, while the president picks up support from 40%.  Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last week, the GOP candidate held a 48% to 43% edge over the incumbent.  This is the seventh week in a row a generic Republican has led Obama.  Prior to this survey since early May, the Republican has earned 43% to 48% support, while the president has picked up 41% to 45% of the vote.

Rasmussen Reports will provide new data on this generic matchup each week until the field of prospective Republican nominees narrows to a few serious contenders.

So far this year, the president’s overall job approval, measured in the Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, has ranged from a low of 42% to a high of 51%.  If the election were held today, a president’s approval rating is a good indicator of how much support he would receive.  Any incumbent earning under 50% of the vote is considered politically vulnerable. 
  
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 The survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted on August 22-28, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.