President Obama is receiving high marks for his handling of Hurricane Sandy, gaining bipartisan support, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News tracking poll released on Wednesday.
Among the likely voters polled, 78 percent thought the president did either “excellent” or “good” with his response to the storm, which has claimed the lives of dozens of people on the East Coast.
This support even translated to Romney backers, who, by a two-thirds margin, thought Obama’s reaction was positive. Romney’s reaction to the storm, however, had lower marks at 44 percent. Roughly 35 percent had no opinion.
Obama has received wide praise from New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who has worked closely with him to assess the damage in the region over the last several days.
“I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and for the people of our state," Christie said during joint remarks at a marina in Brigantine on Wednesday. "And I heard it on the phone conversations with him, and I was able to witness it today, personally."
The poll also indicates the race is still very much even, and Obama’s overall job approval rating still sits at 50 percent. Analysts say this number indicates the president’s handling of the storm is unlikely to have a major impact on the election.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 27 and Oct. 30 among 1,288 likely voters, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The results for Obama’s handling of the storm, however, were only from one day of interviews on Oct. 30. Those results had a margin of sampling error of 6 percentage points. National polls may also be subject to additional sources of error related to the widespread power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy in the region.
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