Trump, Obama Tie in Preference Poll

President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama essentially tied in a poll asking registered voters who they would prefer be President over the next four years.

That is according to a new Morning Consult/Politico poll of 2,000 registered voters conducted Dec. 28-29, 2016.

Actually, 45% preferred Trump and 44% Obama, which was within the margin of error.

Obama recently said he thought he would have beaten Trump had he been able to run for a third term.

The poll also found a large majority—78%—favoring regular White House press briefings. An even larger majority, 83%, said that presidential speeches were an effective way for a President to communicate to the public (83%), with President-elect Trump's current mode of communication—Twitter—getting an "effective" nod from only 44%.

The Obama Administration was promoting its own promotional media prowess, pointing out that the President was the first to have a dedicated Twitter account, which was created in 2015.

The poll was conducted online and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.