Approval Numbers and 2012

I recently had someone ask me if they thought Obama's approval numbers nationally were the same thing as his reelect numbers nationally. I said I suspected that was more or less the case but since I have two fresh 2012 polls in hand I can answer better from a data standpoint.

On the national poll we have coming out Thursday 94% of people who approve of Obama's job performance support him against Sarah Palin, 92% do against Jeb Bush, 90% do against Mitt Romney, and 89% do against Mike Huckabee.

Among those who disapprove of Obama's job performance 7% support him against Palin, 3% against Bush, and 2% against Huckabee and Romney.

Pretty similar story in Arizona. 92% of his approvers will vote for him against Palin, 90% against Huckabee, and 88% against Romney. Among his disapprovers it's 3% against Palin and only 1% against Huckabee and Romney.

Obama's RCP approval right now is 54%. With Pollster it's 51%. Just more evidence that he's more or less in the same place he was on election day.