What are the chances that President Obama will win the job as president in 2012?

Answer 1

Good question, always be sure to fact check for yourself (as you just have) and look for the source of the information that is quoted. Those who say his approval rating is the lowest Presidential rating in history have the facts wrong. His approval in the polls is one of the highest.

As of early October 2012:

According to trading at Intrade (a world-wide prediction market), President Obama has a very good chance. President Obama is listed with a 73.7% likelihood to win the 2012 election and that trend has been going up. They have his opponent, former Governor Romney, at 26.4% likelihood with a continuing down trend.

Note:

The Intrade site (link is in related links section below) is the world's leading stock-trading-style market (called a "decision market" or "prediction market") which attempts to "trade" the likelihood of various people being the next president, in the same way people trade stocks. While certainly not a guarantee, it's a good way to see how people who actually bet money on an outcome (instead of just answering a random poll) predict who the next President will be.

With Intrade, these numbers don't necessarily have to add up to 100%, the numbers are based upon active "betting" with investment on one or the other to win the election. Many believe this is a better and more accurate way to determine what people are willing to put their money down for, as opposed to getting the numbers from polling opinions.