Romney loses favour in new US poll
2012-08-08 23:03
Washington - Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney is losing favour among US voters just three months ahead of his tough election battle with President Barack Obama, a new poll showed on Wednesday.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 49% of voters have a negative view of the former Massachusetts governor, up from 45% in May.
Forty percent of voters, meanwhile, see him in a positive light, practically the same proportion from the spring.
In contrast, 53% of voters said they had a favourable opinion of challenger Obama, while 43% said they felt negatively about him.
By a margin of 53% to 40%, more key independent voters see Obama favourably rather than unfavourably. Fifty% of this group view Romney unfavourably, compared to 37% who consider him favourably.
Slip-ups
Romney has had a rough summer marred in part by a series of slip-ups during a trip abroad to Britain, Israel and Poland. He has also come under fire for his refusal to release his tax returns from before 2010.
Among supporters of his own Republican Party, 83% have a good feeling about Romney ahead of the 6 November election but just 41% feel "strongly favourable." 61% of Democrats meanwhile feel this way about their candidate.
The poll, carried out 1 to 5 August, surveyed 1 026 adults, and the margin of sampling error was plus or minus four percentage points.
A separate Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll released on Wednesday shows a tight race shaping up in the battleground states of Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin, three states won by Obama in 2008.
While Romney leads Obama 50% to 45% in Colorado, the president is ahead 49% to 45% in Virginia, and 51% to 45% in Wisconsin, according to the poll.
Most voters in the three states appear to have already made up their minds, said Quinnipiac assistant director Peter Brown, suggesting that Obama and Romney are slugging it out over a limited number of undecided voters.
"Nine out of 10 in each state say they are sure they will vote for the candidate they favour, which means that the pool of those who say they can be persuaded is pretty small," Brown said.
Battleground states
Voters in Virginia and Wisconsin see the two candidates as roughly even on the question of who can best fix the economy - the top issue in the 2012 election.
But in Colorado Romney is ahead on that front by 10 points
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted 31 July to 6 August and has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.
The new figures come as Obama heads to Colorado on the campaign trail on Wednesday, while Romney has events in Iowa.
Analysts and political experts say the 2012 election will come down to the results in about 10 battleground states.
A Quinnipiac poll last week showed Obama ahead of Romney in the three largest swing states: Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. No candidate has won the White House since 1960 without winning at least two of those three states.
