UPI Poll: Obama's lead over Romney slips

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama's nationwide lead over Republican rival Mitt Romney fell to 2 percentage points, results of a United Press International poll indicated.

Forty-eight percent of likely voters said they would vote for Obama and 46 percent said they would cast ballots for Romney, results of the UPI-CVoter poll released Thursday indicated.

Last week, the poll indicated 50 percent of likely voters would back Obama's bid for a second term.

Obama's approval rating held steady, with 50 percent of likely voters saying they approved and 46 percent saying they disapproved.

Likely voters' assessment of the U.S. economic situation remains bleak, however, with 69 percent of respondents saying the economy was "fairly bad" or "very bad," the poll said. Five percent said the economy is "very good" and 26 percent said it was "fairly good."

Likely voters polled were nearly evenly split on who they thought could best revive the economy, with 47 percent naming Obama and 46 percent saying Romney.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews of 773 likely voters Sept. 19-25. The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points.

Another UPI-CVoter poll indicated Americans thought Obama could better oversee the financial sector than Romney, 40 percent to 37 percent.

Men said they had more faith in Obama than Romney, 41 percent to 33 percent, while women indicated they prefer Romney over Obama, 41 percent to 37 percent, results indicated.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews Sept. 18-24 with 883 adults. The margin of error for the total sample is 3.5 percentage points.