Obama Leads in Poll as Voters View Romney as Out of Touch
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis - Jun 20, 2012 4:00 AM ET
Barack Obama has opened a significant lead over Mitt Romney in a Bloomberg National Poll that reflects the presumed Republican nominee’s weaknesses more than the president’s strengths.
Obama leads Romney 53 percent to 40 percent among likely voters, even as the public gives him low marks on handling the economy and the deficit, and six in 10 say the nation is headed down the wrong track, according to the poll conducted June 15- 18.
The survey shows Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has yet to repair the damage done to his image during the Republican primary. Thirty-nine percent of Americans view him favorably, about the same as when he announced his presidential candidacy last June, while 48 percent see him unfavorably -- a 17-percentage point jump during a nomination fight dominated by attacks ads. A majority of likely voters, 55 percent, view him as more out of touch with average Americans compared with 36 percent who say the president is more out of touch.
Taken together, the results suggest an unsettled political environment for both Obama and Romney five months from the November election, with voters choosing for now to stick with a president they say is flawed rather than backing a challenger they regard as undefined and disconnected.
Could Do Worse
Sunde, an independent, gives Obama low grades for dealing with the economy yet says Romney would do worse. “His perspective is you just let the free market take care of everything, and we’ll go right down the toilet drain, and everything -- all the jobs -- will go straight to Asia,” Sunde says of Romney.
The poll of 1,002 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the full sample. Questions asked of the 734 likely voters have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. Its findings are at odds with other recent national surveys that have found the two candidates tied or shown a slight advantage for Obama or Romney.
Poll Details
Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed in Bloomberg’s poll say they consider themselves Democrats or independents who lean that way and 33 percent consider themselves Republicans or independents who lean Republican, a 5-point Democratic advantage. In 2008, the presidential election exit polls showed the Democrats with a 7-point advantage.
The Democratic advantage in the Washington Post’s May poll sample was 10 points, while the one in the New York Times’ April survey was 8 points and the Wall Street Journal’s May poll was 7 points.
In the Bloomberg Poll, 53 percent of those surveyed were women and 67 percent were white, in line with other national polls. Obama fares better among white voters than he does in other surveys, drawing support from 43 percent compared with 50 percent backing Romney.
Beyond Romney’s low favorability ratings, the poll reflects perceived weaknesses for the Republican challenger both in style and substance. Only 31 percent of likely voters say they’d want to sit next to Romney on a long airplane flight, compared with 57 percent who prefer Obama as a seat mate.
more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-20/obama-leads-in-poll-as-voters-view-romney-as-out-of-touch.html
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