If history repeats itself, the job approval rating of U.S. President Barack Obama will experience a sharp uptick, a polling organization said.
The mission that resulted in the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden should produce a rally effect in the president's poll numbers, the Gallup Organization reported Tuesday.
"History indicates that Americans in such instances rally around their leader in a sign of solidarity, at least in the short term." Gallup said. "That rallying produces an increase in the president's job approval ratings."
Obama's approval ratings were on a slight upward tick before Sunday night's bin Laden announcement, the polling organization said.Interviewing conducted Friday to Sunday ahead of the announcement had the president with a job approval rating of 46 percent, the highest since April 9-11.
The largest polling rally in Gallup history occurred in 2001 when President George W. Bush's numbers went from 51 percent before the World Trade Center Attack to 86 percent after it.
The capture of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sent Bush's poll numbers from 56 percent to 63 percent in 2003, Gallup said.