Poll: Obama's lead in Ohio narrows

By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus and Steve Chaggaris

President Obama is holding on to a five-point lead over Republican Mitt Romney in Ohio, but that margin has been cut in half since September, according to a new Quinnipiac University/CBS News poll.

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Poll: Obama leads in Ohio, 50 to 45 percent

Mr. Obama holds a 50 to 45 percent lead over Romney among likely voters in the Buckeye State, down from a 53 to 43 percent advantage on Sept. 26. Three percent of likely voters there are undecided.

A gender gap persists: President Obama still has a double-digit advantage among women, 55 to 40 percent (down from a 60 to 35 percent lead in the September poll), while Romney leads with men.

The president enjoys a 15-point lead with women, while Romney is ahead by seven points among men, 51 to 44 percent, virtually unchanged from last month. Mr. Obama has a nearly two to one lead with unmarried women, but married women are more divided in their vote preferences.

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While seniors were split in their support last month, they are now backing Romney over the president, 51 to 44 percent. Young voters still support President Obama by a large margin.

Romney has made some inroads with independents; he now leads among this group by seven points, 49 to 42 percent. Romney had a one-point advantage among independents in September.

The Issues

The president is viewed as better on foreign policy, 50 to 43 percent, which will be the focus of tonight's debate, but his lead has shrunk from 13 to seven points on this measure. The candidates are now even on handling the economy; last month, the president led by six points on this issue. Romney has also widened his lead over the president on handling the budget deficit.

The president continues to be seen by Ohio voters as caring about their needs and problems - 60 percent say he does while just 37 percent say he does not - similar to last month. While Mitt Romney has improved on this measure, more voters continue to think he does not care about their needs and problems than think he does.

Men and women view Mitt Romney differently on this characteristic. While 51 percent of men think Mitt Romney does care about their needs and problems, most women do not. Majorities of both men and women think Barack Obama cares.

When it comes to who would do a better job helping the middle class, Mr. Obama has a 13 point lead over Mitt Romney, 54 to 41 percent.

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[WindyCityGardener]

Shouldn't this be against the law ? Time Magazine has a poll out for Ohio. The poll is weighted 9% for Obama. In the poll they say Obama is winning independents 53 % to Romney's 38%. But if you go to the real poll. The numbers for Independents are Romney 55% and Obama 32%. Now they are just lying about their own polls. They continue to say the poll is not weighted. But it clearly is. 273 Democrats and 206 Republicans.

[WindyCityGardener]

Shouldn't this be against the law ? Time Magazine has a poll out for Ohio. The poll is weighted 9% for Obama. In the poll they say Obama is winning independents 53 % to Romney's 38%. But if you go to the real poll. The numbers for Independents are Romney 55% and Obama 32%. Now they are just lying about their own polls. They continue to say the poll is not weighted. But it clearly is. 273 Democrats and 206 Republicans.

[Faramir0028g]

peter_out do ur slow self a favor get a clue and a better handle
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

00000000 BBBBBBBB AAAAA MMMMM AAAAA
20 12
put ur peter back were it belongs what a chump

[Meritous]

Another pull with a plus 9 Democrat turnout model, higher than even the 2010 election. Retards.

[catsaresmarter11]

where does it say that?

[swanman823]

Like all the slanted liberal polls, this poll oversamples Dems. Romney is going to win Ohio and going to win the election. Over, Done, take it to the bank. Liberals better stock up on your meds for election night, you are going to need the.

I would also encourage everyone interested in the truth to Google: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt by Mitt Romney. Read the article, the title was by the New York Times, not Romney. Read it, his plan would have been more fair to all and resulted in a more competetive auto industry today. He said Government should give guarantees and back warranties. Just a capitalist approach instead of a socialist approach.

[Ablative_Absolute]

As a long time resident of Ohio, I can say with confidence that ROMNEY WILL LOSE IN OHIO. We realized this when Romney stated (not so long ago), "Let Detroit go Bankrupt!" Of course he tries desperately to back-pedal on this now, but it isn't working. And it wasn't so long ago that Romney proclaimed his repugnant remarks about "The 47 Percent." We have not forgotten that either.

We have not forgotten all of the many issues that Romney has "flip-flopped" on. He will simply say "whatever" it takes, depending on who his audience is at the time. Romney will lose in November.

[peter_out]

The President has "Bamnesia". The President did not save the auto industry. What he did do is spend a lot of other people's money to perpetuate poorly run corporations and when GM, for instance, paid back their loans in the form of unsaleable assets, and stocks worth half of what the President accepted as pay back value, the President touted himself as a winner.

Under Romney's bankrupsy scheme, GM and others would have been re-structured, debts settled, and $10 million bonus payments to failed executives and consultants would have been avoided. Viable cars would still be coming out the doors of the factories, and employees would still be on the line. The many Billions of dollars Obama used for the bailouts would not have been borrowed from China.

[peter_out]

And another thing. Obama's campaign bus is Canadian.

[TimeToEvolve]

Robbed Me's official strategy to "run" for pResident is to lie to the American people. And a bunch of idiot Americans who miss Bush Cheney don't care. LOL.

[bkeating51]

In the 1980 election between President Carter and Ronald Reagan, all the major polls concluded in the three weeks right up to the election that it was too close to call.

Ronald Reagan beat Carter by 10 per cent on the night of the election.

That is all you really have to know about the value of these polls. Don't waste your time.

[cologirl55]

This is probably a waste of space since clearly this is where all the Liberal trolls are. Facts are facts-no matter how much the Liberal trolls try to spin them their way. FACT 1= Obama LIED when he promised to lower the unemployment rate to 5.4% his first 2 years. It never happened! FACT 2=While Obama claims ADDING 5 million jobs-we lost roughly 4.316 million jobs during his FIRST 13 months (siting MONEY.CNN.com 8/2012)in office. We continued to lose jobs for months and months AFTER that, so once again-Obama LIED. FACT 3=Obama has been proven to have LIED about the knowledge concerning Libya Terror Attack (the comment in the Rose Garden-read the transcript!-was in observance of the 9/11 attack). So if all these FACTS about Obama's Lies are looked at. WHY would anyone TRUST him to change things or do things differently the next 4 years? NOT!! Go Romney/Ryan 2012!

[TimeToEvolve]

Miss more wars and paying for the tax cuts for the rich huh? We need more of our young people dying for lies, I agree. Bush Cheney 2012!!!

[TimeToEvolve]

FaelanMac replies:
Disastrous? Only a Liberal with a very short memory span would call 5% unemployment and world peace....disastrous.

Are you talking about when Clinton was president? Or are you talking about the disaster of the Bush Cheney Crime Family who started two wars for oil and got unemployment up to 10% by the time Obama turned it around?