Both Rasmussen and Gallup track President Barack Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, but the two prominent pollsters are offering very different takes with their latest releases.
In every release since Friday, Rasmussen has shown the president’s approval ratings well under the 50 percent mark. Obama’s numbers dipped significantly on Saturday and Sunday, with only 44 percent approving of his job performance on both days. The 44 percent approval rating matched Obama’s 2012 nadir in the Rasmussen survey.
Gallup, meanwhile, has shown the president above water over the same time period. In fact, Obama’s approval rating is just short of 50 percent in today’s release, with only 43 percent disapproving.
Both pollsters conduct their tracking surveys over a three-day span and both are based on a sample size of 1,500 respondents; however, Gallup surveys adults — any citizen over the age of 18 — whereas Rasmussen only polls “likely voters.”
The TPM Poll Average captures the steady improvement in Obama’s approval rating in the weeks after the new year began, along with the slight drop that has occured over the last month.
