Obama leads Romney by 13 points in latest poll

President Barack Obama has a 13% lead over Republican rival Mitt Romney according to a new national poll.

According to a Bloomberg National Poll released Wednesday, Obama tops Romney 53 percent to 40 percent. The likely voters surveyed approved of the job Obama is doing overall, 53 percent to 44 percent with those numbers reversed in regards to the economy.

The firm that conducted the Bloomberg survey, Selzer & Co., is well regarded by polling experts. The margin of error for its likely voter results was 3.6 percentage points.

The poll did not include an over-representation of Democrats, or African-Americans – both groups that tend to skew heavily toward the incumbent. One thing that might account for its result, as compared with other surveys, is that it shows Obama doing better among white voters. The Bloomberg survey has him with 43 percent of the white vote, as opposed to 50 percent for Romney.

But despite the president’s disappointing efforts on the economic front, Romney still loses because he’s viewed as more out of touch with average Americans — 55 percent of respondents said Romney was the most out of touch between the two candidates, compared to just 36 percent who tapped Obama, according to the poll. Obama was also far more trusted to deal with world leaders than Romney, as well as chosen as a better seatmate on a long flight.

Those polled also cited Romney’s experience as Massachusetts governor as his best qualification for the presidency, followed by his role as CEO of Bain Capital. But likely voters were about evenly split on whether it’s a good idea or bad idea to elect a CEO as president, which could be a troubling result for Romney who is banking on touting his private sector experience to woo voters.

Obama also benefitted from the fact that 49 percent of those asked said he has “laid out a better vision for a successful economic future,” compared to 33 percent for Romney.

Perhaps the most critical statistic of all, 45 percent of respondents said they were better off than they were at the beginning of 2009, compared to 36 percent who said they were worse off.

Despite the poll’s overall result, there are some signs of weakness for Obama within the Bloomberg numbers. Only 31 percent of respondents said the US is on the right track. Sixty-two percent said it is on the wrong track.

Only 43 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s handling of the economy. Fifty-three percent disapprove. And Romney has a slight edge among the most enthusiastic voters, 49 to 48 percent.

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