Latest Quinnipiac poll results good news for Obama, bad news for Romney

With 98 days remaining until Election Day on November 6, results from the Quinnipiac University/ CBS News/New York Times Swing State Poll released Wednesday ought to give President Obama some needed cheer while giving GOP presumptive challenger Mitt Romney more reasons to look for his worry beads.

The results may be even more disconcerting to Romney if the widely understood notion that most voters have made up their minds already is valid, and that those who do break to one candidate or the other between now and Election Day will necessarily come from a small percentage of the electorate spread out over a dozen so-called battleground states that will make or break this year's run for the White House for Obama, who's seeking a second term, or Romney, seeking his first term.

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Quinnipiac poll results show President Barack Obama has hit the magic 50 percent mark against Gov. Mitt Romney among likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with wide support for his plan to hike federal income taxes on upper-income voters.

Big electoral states in Obama camp

The release from Quinnipiac said today's poll results are the first measure of likely voters in these swing states and cannot be compared with earlier surveys of registered voters. Matching Obama against Romney in each of these key states, no one has won the White House since 1960 without taking at least two of them.

Florida: Obama edges Romney 51- 45 percent;

Ohio: Obama over Romney by a slim 50 - 44 percent;

Pennsylvania: Obama tops Romney 53 - 42 percent.

Support for President Obama's proposal to increase taxes on households making more than $250,000 per year is 58 - 37 percent in Florida, 60 - 37 percent in Ohio and 62 - 34 percent in Pennsylvania.

"If today were November 6, President Barack Obama would sweep the key swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania and - if history is any guide - into a second term in the Oval Office," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"The president is running better in the key swing states than he is nationally. Part of the reason may be that the unemployment rate in Ohio is well below the national average. In Florida it has been dropping over the past year, while nationally that has not been the case."

Brown said this matters because half of all likely voters say the economy is the most important issue to their vote, far ahead of any other issue. The saving grace for Gov. Mitt Romney, he said, is that he roughly breaks even with the president on who is best on the economy.

"The president's strength among women is the dominant dynamic fueling his lead. It is this dynamic that argues for Romney to pick a female running mate. On the other hand, the president's lead in Ohio and Florida also argues for the selection by Romney of Sen. Rob Portman or Sen. Marco Rubio since he can't win the White House without the Buckeye and Sunshine states and presumably these home state senators would be the most helpful."

source The examiner