Gallup Metrics to Watch as the Presidential Election Season Begins

With President Obama officially launching his 2012 re-election campaign, presidential election campaign season is here again.  Though the Republican hopefuls have yet to announce their intentions, we're monitoring the dynamics of the race as it takes shape.

Here's a quick rundown of what's available -- and in the works -- in terms of Election 2012 coverage from Gallup.com.

• As our Editor in Chief Frank Newport writes, "the focus for an incumbent is on his job approval rating." Gallup's Presidential Job Approval Center provides the most comprehensive coverage available on the president's job performance, including daily and weekly averages, demographic breaks, term statistics, and the ability to compare to past presidents who fought to keep their jobs.

• Gallup's new Positivity Intensive measure provides a unique gauge of enthusiastic support for the potential Republican contenders. A potential candidate's Positivity Intensity score reflects the net total of strongly favorable and strongly unfavorable opinions about the person among Republicans who recognize them. We're reporting on it weekly on Gallup.com based on continuous tracking.

• We're tracking the potential Republican contenders' overall support and have already noted the atypical nature of the current wide-open contest. 

• We're also measuring how President Obama fares against "the Republican Party's candidate" until the field narrows enough to fill in some names.

We're in the process of folding all of this data into a fabulous Election 2012 interactive guaranteed to keep election watchers up to date on every metric that matters. We'll launch it in a few weeks and will evolve it as the race progresses. You can also count on Gallup for the best historical context available anywhere, based on our presidential election polling going back to 1936.

In the meantime, explore all of our recent Election 2012 stories and sign up to receive new ones via e-mail alert or RSS feed here.