With the struggling economy the biggest issue on the presidential campaign trail, voters in three key swing states are split over whether President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney could help fix it, CBS News is reporting. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida approve of Obama’s new immigration policy. The president holds leads over Romney in all three states, but voters are still unsure if he could save the economy.
Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said for most of last year, more swing state voters thought Romoney would do a better job with the economy. But the Republican nominee’s lead has disappeared.
In Ohio, a state which Romney must win, 47 percent of voters said they think Obama would be better for the economy, as opposed to Romney’s 42 percent. Forty-six percent of Florida voters said Romney would do better than Obama, who had 44 percent of votes, within the poll’s 2.8 percent margin of error. Pennsylvania voters are split at 44 percent for each candidate.
Obama is doing well in Ohio, as the president has hit Romney the hardest over his record as the head of the private equity firm Bain Capital. CBS News political director John Dickerson noted that Romney was leading 43 percent to 38 percent there last month, particularly among independents.
Written by: Karen Benardello