Obama Leads Romney, Santorum by Double Digits

President's approval rating shoots to 53%
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 27, 2012 9:56 AM CST
Obama Leads Romney, Santorum by Double Digits
President Barack Obama smiles as he arrives to announce the revamp of his contraception policy requiring religious institutions to fully pay for birth control, during a statement, Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Obama's approval rating has jumped 9 percentage points over four months to 53%, and he's posting double-digit leads over his top Republican opponents, a poll finds. Obama leads Mitt Romney by 10 points, 53% to 43%, and Rick Santorum by 11 points, 53% to 42%. Competing against a generic Republican, Obama comes out on top by 5 points; that hypothetical contest was tied in November, Politico notes.

It's a bad sign for Republicans: "We’ve not been talking about which would do a better job of running against Obama. We’ve been talking about who is the most or who is the least conservative," says a GOP pollster. Things aren't looking good for Romney among independents, either: Just 33% take a positive view of him, and Obama leads Romney among independent voters 49% to 27%. Just a third of Americans say the country is on the right track, which isn't great news for Obama—but that's double the number who were optimistic in November. (More President Obama stories.)

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