Rasmussen: Romney leads Obama by 5 percent

Washington - Friday’s Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for shows Mitt Romney beating Barack Obama with 49% of the vote compared to the President’s 44 percent.

The poll shows three percent prefer some other candidate, and four percent are undecided. Romney also has a 49 to 43 advantage when it comes to who is trusted more to handle the economy, according to the poll. Seventy percent (70%) of voters see Obama as politically liberal, while 67% see Romney as a conservative. However, the president is seen as more extreme, ideologically. Forty-three percent (43%) see him as Very Liberal, while just 24% believe Romney is Very Conservative. Most voters are either politically Moderate or Somewhat Conservative. Sixty-two percent (62%) place Romney in that group while just 25% say the same for Obama. Matchup results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Romney’s five-point advantage is the largest lead by either candidate in a month. The president’s support has been at either 43% or 44% for six straight days in the Rasmussen poll. In a weekly newspaper column by Scott Rasmussen, he notes that the declining economy is hurting the president’s reelection prospects. When President Bush was reelected in 2004 his summer job approval rating was similar to Obama’s. However, in 2004, the underlying trends were moving in his direction. “The big issue that year was the war on terror. In the summer of 2004, just 44 percent thought the United States and its allies were winning that war. In the five weeks running up to the 2004 elections, however, confidence that our side was winning ranged from 49 percent to 52 percent,” Rasmussen said. Rasmussen concludes that for Obama to win, “he will need to improve his own job approval rating between now and Election Day. For that to happen, perceptions of the economy will have to reverse their current downward trend.” If you’d like Scott Rasmussen to speak to your organization, meeting, or conference, please contact Premiere Speakers. Consumer confidence fell to a 2012 low yesterday. Today, the government reported slowing GDP growth. To address the nation’s economic challenges, 21% of Likely Voters favor an increase in government spending. Three times as many (64%) think the government should cut spending to spur economic growth.