Women, Indies give Obama PA lead in new poll
Obama leads by 6 points in new PA poll, but there are warning signs on the economy.
Women, Indies give Obama PA lead in new poll
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
President Obama holds a steady 6-point lead over Republican rival Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of the state released Tuesday morning.
Obama’s 46 to 40 percent advantage among registered voters is virtually unchanged from the university’s May survey, and pollsters said that the president is buoyed in the Democratic-leaning state by his advantage among women voters and independents.
In Tuesday’s poll, women back Obama 51 percent to 36 percent in Pennsylvania, while men narrowly favor Romney, 44 percent to 40 percent. Obama is leading 43 percent to 35 percent among independent voters, the poll finds.
But the poll contains some warning signs for Obama, who is due to attend three fundraising events at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia Tuesday night. It’s the ninth weekday out of the last 27 that Obama has been on the road raking in campaign cash; he was at three events in Baltimore earlier in the day.
First, he hasn’t cracked 50 percent support in a series of Quinnipiac polls. In addition, the president’s job approval rating in this survey (46 percent) is worse than his likability rating of 77 percent. By 49 percent to 41 percent, respondents say that Romney would do a better job of handling the economy. Asked which candidate would create more jobs, 45 percent picked the Republican, to 43 percent who named Obama.
“Pennsylvanians may like the president more than they like Mitt Romney, but the warm and fuzzy feeling gives way to the cold hard truth of a still-shaky economy,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the university’s polling institute.
Pennsylvania Republicans sought to pre-but Obama’s visit to the state during a conference call with reporters, centering on the president’s comment last week that “the private sector is doing fine” as well as a provisions of the new health-care law that will burden state medical-device manufacturers with a new tax.
“Mr. President, we’re not doing fine,” said state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason. “You’re not doing fine, either. It’s time for you to go.” Though Pennsylvania’s 7.4 percent unemployment rate is lower than the national average of 8.2 percent, Gleason said that the number does not reflect huge numbers of out-of-work state residents who have given up looking for jobs.
U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, of the Sixth District in suburban Philadelphia, spoke of a young medical-device company he had visited Tuesday, Neuronetics, that faces a new 2.3 percent gross-receipts tax next year as part of the Obama health-care overhaul. “It’s absolutely going to crush them in terms of their ability to grow,” Gerlach said. “If the president is serious about jobs, he should come a few miles west of Philadelphia and speak to the medical-device manufacturers.”
The industry says Pennsylvania is home to 600 companies that make medical devices, employing about 20,000 people.
The Quinnipiac survey is based on telephone interviews June 5-10 with 997 registered Pennsylvania voters, and results are subject to a statistical error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Our President seems stuck at 46%
— bannedrepublican- is this guy ever working? always out raising money on my time that i pay him to be working and wasting all this fuel to fly around but wants me to cut back on my driving to save gas— RichH
Comment removed.- Oh God...not another article about polls. In the name of all things good in this world, can we please stop giving a shred of cred to polls? They are meaningless and are never close to reality...you know, kinda' like how Walker in Wisconsin was in a "statistical dead heat"....then won by a massive wide margin.
Stop with these ridiculous polls already. Only a dope would believe them as accurate.— kelprod2 - Actually, polls have been proven to be very accurate, electoral fraud not withstanding. Exit polling has been very, very accurate - until fraud by the GOP reverses the "facts" and spews forth the pre-programmed numbers.
The real message is that the corporate media, doing what they can to push their owners' right-wing views, has decided that it is better for their goals of a rethug in the WH and higher ratings and ad dollars for themselves to only cover the "horse race" aspect of the election. A closer race brings more interest "in the contest" so their profits go up.
If they spent half the time covering issues instead of constantly polling a population deluged with false and useless information, we the people could make a more informed decision. But an informed populace, like an educated one, is not a desired outcome for rightists. Their lies are more effective when no truth is allowed to be brought to the public's attention.
Truth is - the solution does not lie within politics because politics, like economics, is a rigged game in which the 1% own the system and make the rules.— JeffJenk - JeffJenk...polls are structred for their desired outcome. They are all politically motivated and provide no real snapshot of reality. Regardless of party, they are a total joke.— kelprod2
- We'll see in November.— oakster
- Not to worry. Romney will be pushing up Obama's numbers shortly. Romney's on the verge of another etch-a-sketch moment and yet another flip flop. — CommonSense in Philly
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- Romney will take Pa........Obama has a defined ceiling here. No matter how much the media tries to minimize his chances- this is 1980 redux and the economy will be a boat anchor around his neck. Moreover, Romney is far stronger than McCain on economic matters and he will select a far stronger VP..........watch the Philly media try to link Corbett to the Sandusky affair ignoring that the Governor was Rendell and ultimate authority over the speed of the case and it's investigation..........hoping to distract the voter and tie the GOP to this............— Northcountry
- Here we go with another conservative spin on the facts. If the philly media links Corbett to the Sandusky case, it's because Corbett was the state AG at the time Sandusky was raping his boys — CommonSense in Philly
- Polls of "likely voters" show the Pennsylvania race to be within the margin of error. Not good news for Obama in PA.— Mr. Smith
- He (Obama) is nothing but a professionally trained speaker. The true reality is Obama is a empty headed,dishonest,so far in over his head incompedent dope!!! Truly our country is in serious trouble if he is reelected. The reality is he will lose and we will survive the worst four years in the history of this great country.— Alpha58
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- However, a new poll finds most Inky readers favor lap band surgery for Mr. Fitzgerald.— blackhawk90
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
