---
title: "Obama in a Word: From ‘Inexperienced’ and ‘Change’ to ‘Good’ and ‘Trying’"
description: "Four years ago, voters’ descriptions of Barack Obama focused on his newness on the political scene. In September 2008, more voters used the word inexperienced to describe Obama than any other word, while change was the most frequently used positive term. Words like young, charismatic and new were also among the top descriptions. Today, the […]"
date: "2012-09-05"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/09/05/obama-in-a-word-from-inexperienced-and-change-to-good-and-trying/"
categories:
  - "Barack Obama"
  - "Election 2012"
  - "U.S. Elections & Voters"
datasets:
  - name: "August 31 September 3 2012 Weekly Survey"
    url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/august-31-september-3-2012-weekly-survey/"
---

# Obama in a Word: From ‘Inexperienced’ and ‘Change’ to ‘Good’ and ‘Trying’

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2012/09/9-5-12-Obama-1.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/09/9-5-12-Obama-1.png)

Four years ago, voters’ descriptions of Barack Obama focused on his newness on the political scene. In September 2008, more voters used the word *inexperienced* to describe Obama than any other word, while *change* was the most frequently used positive term. Words like *young*, *charismatic* and *new* were also among the top descriptions.

Today, the public’s one-word descriptions for Obama reflect the mixed views of his presidency. The top positive words are *good* and *trying*, while the most frequently used negative descriptions are *failure* and *incompetent*.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Washington Post, conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 3 among 1,008 adults, finds that some perceptions of Obama have endured over the years. Four years ago, *intelligent* was among the most frequent descriptions. It has remained a constant in one-word surveys on Obama since then. Currently, 17 of respondents describe Obama as *intelligent*; two months before the 2008 election, 20 people said Obama was *intelligent*.

The word *socialist* also has been consistently used to describe Obama. Among Republicans, *socialist* is the third most frequently used word (9 mentions), behind *failure* and *incompetent* (15 each).

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/09/9-5-12-Obama-2.png)

More generally, the one-word reactions to Obama reflect polarized views of his presidency. About four-in-ten (43%) of those who offered a one-word description used a positive term to describe their impression of Obama, while an identical percentage used a negative word. Just 14% gave a neutral word, with president the most common.

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2012/09/9-5-12-Obama-3.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/09/9-5-12-Obama-3.png)

[A Pew Research Center/Washington Post survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/08/29/romney-in-a-word-honest-businessman-rich/) last week found that more people use negative than positive words to describe Mitt Romney: 42% of the words were clearly negative while 28% were positive. There were far more neutral descriptions of Romney than Obama (30% vs. 14%).

While impressions of Obama are centered on his performance as president, Romney’s focused on his background and experience. *Business* and *businessman*, and *rich*, were among the top words used to describe the GOP nominee.

The word *honest* is used to characterize both Romney and Obama, though it is a more frequent descriptor of Romney. Conversely, the word *liar* is used with about the same frequency in describing both men.

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2012/09/PP_12.09.04_oneWord-obama.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/09/PP_12.09.04_oneWord-obama.png)