President Obama and his team believe that if this is an election about a choice between two directions for the country he’ll win. Mitt Romney and his crew believe (at least, they used to) that if they can make this election a referendum on Obama’s job performance and stewardship of the economy they’ll win. According to the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, Obama is doing well on both fronts.
Is the country better off now than when Obama became president? "Better off" gets 38%, up seven points since last month. "Worse off" gets 41%, down one point since last month.
Obama is viewed as "better prepared" to lead the country for the next four years by 47% of respondents. That’s an 11-point advantage over Romney.
Will the nation’s economy get better, get worse or stay the same over the next year? "Get better" gets 42%, up six points since last month. "Get worse" gets 18%, the same as last month and down seven points since July.
Is the economy recovering or not recovering? "Recovering" got 51%, up one point since last month. "Not recovering" got 45%, down one point.
Obama’s approval rating on his handling of the economy rose three points to 47%. Disapproval dropped three points from 54% to 51%.
A lot of these numbers are nothing to cheer about. And on top of it all, the right track (39%)/wrong track (55%) numbers are terrible. But the right-track number is seven points higher than last month and the wrong-track view dropped six points. Despite a nation still in economic pain, the president’s overall job approval rating hit 50% for the first time since March, up two percentage points.
