Poll: Obama has foreign policy advantage

CBS

(CBS News) In a CBS News/ New York Times poll conducted as the current Middle East turmoil erupted, President Obama has the advantage over Mitt Romney when it comes to who voters trust to handle an international crisis.

Sixty-five percent of likely voters are at least somewhat confident in Mr. Obama's ability to handle an international crisis, including four in 10 who have a lot of confidence. By comparison, 58 percent have confidence in Romney's ability to do so, including just one in four with a lot of confidence.

The poll was conducted Sept. 8-12, and most of the interviews were done in the days just before violent protests against the U.S. broke out in the Middle East.

On Sept. 11, protesters angered by an obscure Internet movie belittling Islam attacked U.S. diplomatic offices in Egypt and Libya. Early the next morning, the U.S. learned that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. By Friday, Muslims around the world were protesting for the fourth straight day.

When asked separately who would do a better job handling foreign policy, 49 percent chose Mr. Obama and 39 percent chose Romney.

Handling the economy

The economy remains the top concern of voters in this election, and likely voters are divided between the two candidates on this issue. Forty-seven percent of likely voters now think Mr. Obama would do a better job handling the economy and jobs, while 46 percent choose Romney. The candidates are about equal on handling taxes, and Romney (51 percent) leads Mr. Obama (43 percent) on handling the budget deficit.

The percentage of registered voters that think Mr. Obama's economic policies are improving the economy now has risen 10 points - from 17 percent in July to 27 percent today. Another 32 percent say his policies will improve the economy if given more time, while 38 percent say they will never improve it.

As for who will do more to help middle-class Americans, Mr. Obama has a 14 point lead over Romney. Most voters earning less than $100,000 a year choose Mr. Obama on this measure, while half of those earning more choose Romney.

Twenty-six percent of voters think the president's policies will favor the middle class, but just 8 percent say the same about Romney's policies. In fact, 53 percent think Mitt Romney's policies would favor the rich.

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[lamloid]

This poll is pure unadulterated mendacity on the part of CBS News. Their likely voter results over-represent Democrats by 3% and under-represented Republicans by 3%. When corrected that makes the results:

Barack Obama 46%
Mitt Romney 49%

Thus what CBS is reporting is exactly the opposite of the truth.

So the questions consumers of CBS News must ask themselves is why would anyone want to use a news service as a source of information that is dishonest?

[TStewartIII3]

NewsBusters: Can You Top This? CBS/NYT Poll Weights Registered Voters Dems 35%, Republicans 22%
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2012/09/17/can-you-top-nytcbs-poll-weights-registered-voters-dems-35-republicans-22

[walkthetalk]

He has done anything, he is just watching the Master of Deceit and benefiting from, the Learned one's mistakes.

[TJSDC]

The devil is in the details (look at the bottom of the "poll" for who they surveyed.

Total Respondents 1,301
Total Republicans 343 285 (22%)
Total Democrats 451 461 (35%)
Total Independents 507 555 (43%)

They rely on a highly motivated democratic base for the results to be as close as three points. I'd characterize this election to sway more like 2004 when Dem/Rep were even or 2010 when Dems were bumped out of Congress.

[KoKoXYZ]

D+13%? Are you serious CBS? You have got to have no shame to spew these kinds of sham polls as legit. Your agenda is too transparent (except to the fools whom you are trying desperately to influence).
Shame on you. You guys are all lapdogs of the progressive left.

[ekaneti]

The registered voter poll is D+13. There has never been an election since 1976, where there was a D+13 weighting. Even with likely voters the weighting is D+6. 2008 was D+7 so CBS is assuming an electorate similar to 2008. I think it will be D+2 to D+4. Among registered voters the R sample is 29%. There has NEVER been an election since 1980 where the R sample was less than 32%.

The overall result is as much as CBS tries, the race is likely tied.

[peter_out]

Photos have emerged clearly showing rabid people dragging Ambassador Stevens bloodied body through a ranting mob in the streets. This is contradictory to Hillary Clinton's report stating, 'friendly Libyans took Ambassador Stevens to the hospital'. What is going on?

[infantryman1968]

Poll: Obama has foreign policy advantage

LOL!

Once again, 13% more people who claim to be Democrats.

CBS/NYT have no shame.

[jd5502]

Obama as much as endorsed the "Arab Spring" and the predictable result has happened. His experience in foreign policy has shown exactly what not to do. In the case of the middle east he is either incredibly stupid and got a totally unexpected outcome or he is batting for the other side and got exactly what he wanted. Either way he does not need to get any more chances to bring down this country.

[jd5502]

"ZionistCensorship"
Why should I be more concerned with what Romney does with his own money than the way Obama squanders OUR money and our Soldier's and Diplomats lives?

[seeseesee]

Many of those national polls are HORRIBLE for Obama, namely the ABC/Washington Post and CBS/New York Times polls where you have large Democrat over-samplings but rather small leads for Obama. This means if Obama doesn't meet or beat his stellar 2008 turnout advantage he's in for a drubbing on election day.

These over-samplings serve a few purposes but mainly drive down enthusiasm for Republicans while assisting the Obama campaign with "bandwagon" supporters who simply like being on the winning team (they're real and they count).