Just before the midterm elections, a poll of California voters found that more people disapproved of President Obama’s job performance than approved of it. Yet a new PPP poll shows that Obama’s approval rating has rebounded, and he now holds commanding leads in all the potention 2012 matchups against the current frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination.
Mike Huckabee was the most competitive challenger in the poll, trailing Obama 54% to 39%. Mitt Romney fared second best of the GOP contenders, lagging the President 56% to 36%. Both results are slightly tighter than the 24 point margin by which Obama won the state in the 2008 election.
The poll also showed Obama beating Newt Gingrich 58% to 34%, and blowing out Sarah Palin 62% to 31%.
California — and its hefty 55 electoral votes — have consistently gone for the Democratic presidential candidate in recent years. So it was somewhat concerning for Democrats when a PPP poll in late October found that Obama’s approval rating was underwater in the deep blue state. In that poll, 45% of respondents said they approved of Obama’s job performance, compared to 47% who disapproved.
In this latest PPP poll, however, Obama’s approval rating has bounced back to a more expected 53%, with only 41% of respondents disapproving of the President’s job performance.
The PPP poll was conducted January 28-30 among 892 registered voters in California. It has a margin of error of 3.3%.
