Voters are fairly evenly divided over whether they want to give President Obama a second term in the White House:
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that the president currently earns support from 45% of Likely Voters across the nation, while a Generic Republican attracts 43% of the vote.
Rasmussen Reports will provide new data on this generic matchup each week until the field of prospective Republican nominees narrows to a few serious contenders.
Consistent with the results in 2008, Obama handily wins among voters under 40, the Republican wins among voters over 50, and 40-somethings are fairly evenly divided.
The Republican candidate does best among middle-income voters, while the president is stronger among those who are in both upper-income and lower-income categories. Male voters are evenly divided, but women give a slight edge to the incumbent.
84% of Democrats prefer the president, while 81% of Republicans support the generic candidate from their party. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 41% support Obama, and 38% are ready to vote Republican.
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The survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted on May 2-7, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/generic_presidential_ballot
