CNN Poll: Obama Leads Romney 52-45%
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Following a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing a 7 point lead for President Barack Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney; CNN's latest poll found a similar 7 point lead, but President Obama also cleared the 50 percent threshold as well.
Among registered voters, Obama led Romney by a 52-45 percent margin, well outside the margin of error for the CNN poll. It was the first time Obama had cracked 50 percent in CNN polling since April. The trend was keeping Obama between 49-54 percent and Romney between 43-46 percent since February.
Breaking the Obama lead down demographically, Obama leads amongst men, women, and non-white voters, while white voters skew to Romney by a 14 percent margin. Obama is also strong in the under 50 crowd while Romney performs better for those voters over 50.
Obama draws a nearly 20 point advantage for voters who attended college, while Romney has a similar 17 point lead among those surveryed who never went to college.
Independents broke for Obama in the poll by a 53-42 percent margin and Obama leads in the northeast, Midwest, and West, while the South went for Romney.
The CNN poll found that Obama was enjoying a 50 percent approval rating for his job performance, while 47 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Obama's job performance.
When it came to favorability, President Obama was sitting at 56 percent, which has been fairly consistent dating back to the beginning of the year. Romney's favorability were split evenly with 47 percent having a favorable opinion and 48 percent having an unfavorable opinion.
For Republicans, New Jersey governor Chris Christie had the highest favorability out of a list of potential vice-presidential candidates.
When it came to Congress, a plurality of 45 percent said they wanted Democrats in control, while 39 percent said Republicans should have control. Eleven percent said neither party should control Congress.
Where Romney struggles mightily is when it comes to favoring the rich. The poll found that 65 percent of registered voters believe Romney favors the wealthy, compared to 29 percent who said Romney favored the middle class and the poor.
On the flip side, just 18 percent said Obama favored the rich, while 76 percent said he favored the middle-class and the poor. Additionally, a full 63 percent said that objectively, they believe President Obama will win the election in November.
