Candidate to President

America’s impression of Barack Obama has changed substantially from his time on the campaign trail last fall to his current position in the Oval Office. When asked what one word best described candidate Obama in September 2008, the most-common response was “inexperienced.” When asked for their impression of President Obama in February 2009, more Americans used words such as intelligent (the most frequently used one-word descriptor), honest, confident and smart, and fewer used words like inexperienced, young, new and change. (Note: The tally of one-word descriptors which are represented in the word clouds below are actual numbers of respondents not percentages. See full report for more information.) Read More