UPI poll: Obama gets bounce from Sandy

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Most Americans believe President Barack Obama's handling of Hurricane Sandy may help his re-election campaign, a United Press International poll found.

The UPI/C-Voter survey released Saturday said 65 percent of adults agreed the destructive storm and its aftermath gave the president a chance to connect better with voters in the critical closing days of the U.S. presidential campaign.

Only 28 percent of the respondents believed Obama did not connect with the voters, and 55 percent of Republicans dismissed the idea of a post-storm "bounce" for the president.

The pollsters said in a written statement that 47 percent of independent voters expected political benefit for Obama, compared to 39 percent who thought Republican nominee Mitt Romney would gain support at the polls.

Obama could also benefit from the public's impression of how Washington reacted overall to the emergency. The poll found 77 percent of voters, regardless of party affiliation, approved of the government's response both before and after the storm blew through the Northeast.

The UPI/C-Voter poll was based on telephone interviews with 432 respondents Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The margin of error in the sample is 5 percentage points.