The death of Osama bin Laden gave a sizable boost to President Obama’s approval ratings over the past week and a half. However, a PPP poll released on Wednesday finds that despite that bin Laden bump, Obama has not increased his leads over the big-name Republicans who may challenge him in next year’s election.
Compared to one month ago, the latest survey did not show Obama pulling away from several prominent GOP candidates, though he did maintain his already comfortable leads over each of them.
In the poll, Obama beat each of the six Republicans tested against him, winning each contest by at least a five-point spread.
Mitt Romney polled closest to the President, trailing him 47%-42%, a result virtually unchanged from last month when Obama led 47%-41%. Mike Huckabee came next closest, trailing 49%-42%. Last month, Huckabee trailed by a nearly identical 48%-43%.
Similarly, Obama led Gingrich 53%-38% — the same result as what PPP found in April — and he led Palin 54%-37%, a slight change from last month when he led 54%-36%.
Likely contributing to Obama’s stagnating leads is the sour economy, which continues to be a weight around the President’s neck. Despite his rising approval rating overall, Obama received his worst marks ever for economic management in an NBC poll released this week.
Also factoring into the equation is that, according to the PPP poll, Republicans are accounting for much of Obama’s surging approval rating. Last month, only 8% of Republicans said they approved of Obama’s job performance, while 14% said the same this month. However, in the head-to-head contests, those same Republicans, while feeling better about Obama’s job performance, where still unwilling to back his reelection bid.
In releasing the poll, PPP noted that the bump Obama has enjoyed in his approval rating has not exactly correlated to a boost in his reelection odds.
“Obama’s approval numbers have improved,” PPP President Dean Debnam was quoted as saying in a release accompanying the poll results. “But his prospects for reelection really haven’t. The killing of Osama bin Laden doesn’t look like it will have a big long term impact.
The PPP poll was conducted May 5-8 among 814 registered voters nationwide. It has a margin off error of 3.4%.
