President Barack Obama continues to lead Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a poll released Thursday, but with a smaller margin than he had two months ago.
The August 2012 Franklin & Marshall College Poll finds the president leading Romney in Pennsylvania by 44 percent to 38 percent. Another 15 percent of likely registered voters say they are undecided. The rest would vote for someone else.
A June survey showed the president with a 48 percent to 36 percent lead over the former Massachusetts governor, with 12 percent undecided.
Poll researchers reported the findings indicate Obama’s re-election prospects in Pennsylvania today are “quite similar to his position in August 2008 against former Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.
“The president enjoys significant advantages over Romney in his personal popularity and most voters believe he better understands their concerns,” according to Thursday’s press release from Franklin & Marshall.
The poll shows 46 percent consider Obama either “strongly” or “somewhat” favorable, while 32 percent answered the same way for Romney. On the question of which candidate “best understands the concerns of ordinary Americans,” the response in favor of the president was 57 percent to 30 percent.
The survey conducted interviews from August 7 to August 12 with 681 Pennsylvania registered voters, including 343 Democrats, 254 Republicans and 84 who are registered as Independent/Other. The poll has an error margin of +/- 3.8 percentage points.
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In the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, Democratic incumbent Bob Casey, Jr. leads Republican nominee Tom Smith by 35 percent to 23 percent.
Click here for the full August 2012 Franklin & Marshall College Poll results.
