WASHINGTON – Embattled US President Barack Obama is running neck-and-neck with his top Republican rivals for the White House in 2012, according to a public opinion poll out on Wednesday.
The president ties former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney 45-45 per cent and barely leads Texas governor Rick Perry 45-42 per cent in the new survey, which was conducted by Quinnipiac University.
Obama’s lead over Perry — who has supplanted Romney as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination — fell inside the poll’s error margin of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, making it a statistical tie.
“The president is now dead even with one top Republican and just inches ahead of the other,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
In the battle for control of the US Congress, Republicans and Democrats are tied at 38-38 per cent in the polls so-called “generic ballot.”
National polls are solid barometers of overall US public mood, but experts caution that they must be viewed carefully because US elections are chiefly local contests.
The Quinnipiac survey found that just 42 per cent of respondents say Obama deserves a second term while 51 per cent say he does not, in line with his all-time worst 41-50 per cent in a late-March poll, and has a split 47-47 per cent favorability rating among all voters.
The study confirmed the findings of others that Perry has vaulted to the top of the crowded field seeking the Republican White House nod, beating Romney 24-18 per cent among Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters.
