Poll indicates Obama leads in 3 key states

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Democrat President Obama leads Republican Mitt Romney in three key states, a Quinnipiac University-CBS News-New York Times poll released Wednesday indicated.

Results indicated Obama holds single-digit leads over the presumptive Republican presidential nominee among likely voters in Ohio and Florida and a double-digit edge in Pennsylvania.

Obama has a 6 percentage-point edge in Ohio, 50 percent to 44 percent, as well as in Florida, where he enjoys a 51 percent to 45 percent bulge, results showed.

In Pennsylvania, Obama led Romney 53 percent to 42 percent.

When asked to assess qualities for a president, Obama was seen more favorably in all three states, and likely voters said they view him as caring about voters' needs and problems, results indicated. Voters said they are split on Romney's business background, with 42 percent saying it would help him create jobs and about 50 percent saying his background was too focused on profits.

Obama's favorable rating is 50 percent or slightly higher in all three states, the poll indicated, while Romney's favorable rating was around 40 percent.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted July 24-30 with 1,177 likely voters in Florida, 1,193 likely voters in Ohio and 1,168 likely voters in Pennsylvania. The margin of error in each state sample is 3 percentage points.