Obama job approval up for latest quarter

PRINCETON, N.J., July 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama averaged a 46.8 percent approval rating in the just ended quarter, a slight improvement over the previous quarter, Gallup said.

His quarterly average approval rating has risen at least slightly during the last three quarters after dipping to a low of 41 percent in the 11th quarter of his presidency, results released Monday indicated.

Obama's 14th quarter approval average is in the 32nd percentile of all presidential quarterly approval averages Gallup compiled since 1945 and below the historical average of 54 percent, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Obama averaged 49 percent job approval for his presidency to date, Gallup said.

Obama's 14th quarter average is most similar to former President George W. Bush, who won a narrow victory over Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for re-election in 2004.

For the past month, Obama has had a slight advantage over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in Gallup Daily tracking of presidential election preferences.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 45,949 adults conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking April 20-July 19, 2012. The margin of error is 1 percentage point.