Poll: Obama Rises in Popularity While Romney, Gingrich Slip - East Idaho News
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Poll: Obama Rises in Popularity While Romney, Gingrich Slip

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GETTY P 011212 ObamaChicago?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1327406841490JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Unfavorable views of Mitt Romney have soared, doubts about Newt Gingrich remain widespread and President Obama has advanced to his highest personal popularity in more than a year, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll — all in advance of the State of the Union address in which Obama makes his case for a second term.

Fifty-three percent of Americans surveyed express a favorable opinion of Obama overall, up by 5 points from last month to the most since April 2010.

As Obama’s gained, Romney has stumbled badly, with unfavorable views of the recent Republican front-runner up by 15 points in just two weeks. Forty-nine percent of Americans now see Romney unfavorably — a new high in ABC/Post polling this cycle. That far outstrips his favorable rating, 31 percent, down 8 points to a new low.

Gingrich, too, has lost ground, dropping 6 points in favorability since December.  More than half of Americans, 51 percent, now see him unfavorably, up from the low 40s last fall.

Interviews for this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, were conducted last Wednesday through Sunday, following and then through the period in which Romney stumbled in a series of debates, divulged that he pays a 15 percent tax rate, was equivocal on the release of his tax returns and then lost the South Carolina primary to Gingrich, whose ex-wife, Marianne, had just called him unfit for office in an ABC interview.

The sharpest shifts have been among independents. Unfavorable opinions of Romney have soared by 17 points in this group since Jan. 8, to 51 percent; favorable opinions have dropped by 18 points among independents in the same period, to just 23 percent.  Gingrich, for his part, has lost 11 points among independents since December, to 22 percent favorability.  Obama, by contrast, gets a 51 percent favorable rating from independents.

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