42% Think Romney Would Be Doing A Better Job Than Obama

With President Obama's job approval rating hovering near -20, some inevitably wonder what if the last two presidential elections had turned out differently.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 42% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would be doing a better job as president today than Obama is. Thirty-seven percent (37%), however, think Romney would be doing a worse job, while 12% think he would be doing about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Just 25% think Hillary Clinton who lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to Obama would be doing a better job today. But only 10% believe she'd be doing a worse job. Half (50%) think she’d be doing about the same.

Voters tend to think a Hillary Clinton presidency would be like the Obama presidency when it comes to the major issues and expect the president to endorse his former secretary of State. But they’re not so sure the two top Democrats like each other.

Of course, there is a wide partisan difference of opinion when it comes to the president and his former rivals. While 78% of Republicans think Romney would be doing a better job than Obama, 65% of Democrats think he would be doing a worse one. Among voters not affiliated with either party, 40% think Romney would be performing better, while 34% think he would be doing worse.

Republicans (27%) and unaffiliated voters (27%) are slightly more likely than Democrats (21%) to believe Clinton would be outperforming Obama at this point. But roughly half of all three groups agree there wouldn’t be much of a difference.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 19-20, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Just 22% of voters describe the Obama presidency as a success. Nearly twice as many (42%) think it has been a failure.

Fifty percent (50%) of men believe Romney would be doing a better job than Obama, but only 34% of women agree. Slightly more women (39%) think Romney would be doing a worse job as president today. But men and women feel similarly when asked if Clinton would be doing a better or worse job than Obama.

Generally speaking, the older the voter, the more likely he or she is to think Romney would be performing better than Obama. Younger voters tend to think Romney would be doing a worse job. Voters over 40 believe more strongly than those who are younger that Clinton would be performing about the same as Obama,

Nearly half (48%) of white voters think Romney would be doing a better job, but most black voters (64%) say the Republican would be performing worse. Other minority voters are closely divided. Sixty-five percent (65%) of blacks think a Clinton presidency would be about the same as Obama's, compared to 49% of whites and 42% of other minority voters.

The president’s most significant legislative achievement has been the new national health care law, and voters are almost evenly divided over whether they are more likely or less likely to vote for an Obamacare supporter. But most voters continue to have an unfavorable opinion of the law.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters believe that when it comes to dealing with issues the president considers important to the nation, the government should only do what the president and Congress agree on. Thirty-five percent (35%) think Obama should take action alone if Congress does not approve the initiatives he has proposed. When it comes to his executive actions, a plurality (44%) thinks Obama has been less faithful to the U.S. Constitution than most other presidents.

Democrats overwhelmingly believe that Clinton will be the party’s presidential nominee in 2016.

Just 28% of voters think the United States is heading in the right direction.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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