Even after a successful performance in the first debate, Mitt Romney is still not viewed as favorably as President Barack Obama, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The latest poll from ABC News and the Washington Post shows that 47 percent of registered voters view Romney favorably. That represents a new high for the Republican nominee this election cycle, according to ABC/WaPo. Fifty-one percent have an unfavorable view of the former Massachusetts governor.
Obama, however, still trumps his GOP challenger in this category. Fifty-five percent of voters said they have a favorable view of the president — his highest mark since the spring of 2010 in ABC/WaPo’s polling — compared with 44 percent who have an unfavorable view. Long his most sterling characteristic as a politician, Obama’s favorability rating appeared to suffer from the post-debate fallout in Monday’s poll from Pew Research Center. It was the rare survey that showed Romney boasting a better favorability rating — albeit by a narrow margin — than Obama.
The poll was conducted Oct. 4-7. ABC/WaPo’s pollsters noted that Romney saw an immediate bump on the day following the Oct. 3 debate, but that his surge leveled off over the weekend.
Below, the PollTracker Average shows the disparate favorability ratings of Obama and Romney.
