Only 43 percent of political independents offered a one-word positive opinion of President Barack Obama, according to a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Forty-three percent of respondents offered negative terms, while 14 percent offered neutral terms, according to the study, released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Washington Post.
Twenty-four percent of self-identified Democrats offered negative or neutral terms for Obama.
The survey may show more opportunity for Romney to rise — although he scored fewer positive terms — amid public skepticism over Wall Street and big business.
For Romney, “42 percent of the words were clearly negative while 28 percent were positive,” the report said.
But 30 percent of Romney responses were neutral — double the percentage earned by Obama after four years in the White House.
The most common negative terms for Obama were “failed” or “failure,” “incompetent,” “disappointing,” and “liar.”
The most common positive terms were “good,” “great,” “honest” and “intelligent.”
The most common neutral terms were “trying” and “president.”
In contrast, Romney’s negative terms included “liar.”
The most common terms assigned were Romney was “honest,” “business,” “rich” and “good.”