For the first time since May, President Obama’s approval rating has nudged above 50 percent, according to results of a new poll from AP-GfK, which also shows the presidential race remains in a statistical tie.
Buoying Obama, the poll shows that the number of Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction is at its highest point since May of 2011, following the death of Osama bin Laden.
The poll shows a statistical dead heat in the presidential contest, with Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by 47 percent to 46 percent.
According to the poll, 48 percent of respondents also believe the economy will improve in the coming year, which is up from 41 percent prior to the Democratic convention. The poll also found that both candidates run roughly even on whom would best handle the economy and the federal budget deficit.
The poll was conducted Sept. 13-17 and involved interviews with 1,512 adults nationwide, including 1,282 registered voters and 807 likely voters. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. For registered voters it is 3.4 percentage points and for likely voters it is 4.3 percentage points.
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