New national political polls revealing

A poll taken after last week's shocking Massachusetts' senatorial election included information on this fall's election for U.S. senator in Louisiana as well as on Gov. Bobby Jindal's job performance.

The Rasmussen Report shows incumbent U.S. Sen. David Vitter with 53 percent of the projected vote total to Cong.

Charlie Melancon's 35 percent.

Four percent preferred some other candidate and 8 percent were undecided.

These numbers are an improvement for Vitter over a Rasmussen poll taken last October which showed the incumbent with 46 percent to Melancon's 36 percent.

The new poll also looked at the favorable/unfavorable ratings of the two candidates.

Vitter had 61 percent favorable to 33 percent unfavorable and Melancon with 39 percent favorable to 46 percent unfavorable.

The poll asked of Gov. Jindal's job performance rating, "How would you rate the job Bobby Jindal has been doing as governor?" The poll showed 32 percent strongly approved, 35 percent somewhat approved, 18 percent somewhat disapproved and 15 percent strongly disapproved. So, Jindal's positive job rating is at 67 percent.

The same polling service's Presidential Tracking Poll over the weekend showed 24 percent of the nation's voters strongly approve of the way Barack Obama is performing as president. Forty-three percent strongly disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

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