---
title: "Top of the Mind Impressions of Obama"
description: "An interactive graphic shows how perceptions of the president have changed over the past few months.\\n\\n"
date: "2009-05-07"
authors:
  - name: "Tom Rosentiel"
    job_title: "Guest Contributor"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2009/05/07/top-of-the-mind-impressions-of-obama/"
categories:
  - "Presidential Approval"
---

# Top of the Mind Impressions of Obama

---

Figures show the actual number of respondents who offered each response; these numbers are **not percentages**. September 2008 figures are based on registered voters.

Note: Some words offered by respondents in April 2009 were offered four times or less by respondents in September 2008. In these cases, the number is listed as <4. When calculating the difference, all words listed as <4 are given the value of 3. For example, the word "great" was offered by 16 respondents in April 2009, but fewer than 4 respondents offered it in September 2008. The difference (16-3) is therefore 13.