Poll: Romney trails Obama, has image issue

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- President Obama leads presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney nationwide, but his lead is smaller in swing states, a Pew Center poll indicated.

The national survey by Washington-based Pew Research Center, released Thursday, indicated Obama holds a double-digit lead over Romney, with 51 percent of adults saying they support Obama or lean toward him, while 41 percent of adults say they support or lean toward Romney.

Pew said its latest results were consistent with polling during the course of 2012. In eight Pew Research Center surveys since January, Obama led Romney by between 4 percentage points and 12 percentage points.

By a 52 percent-to-37 percent margin, more voters say they have an unfavorable than favorable view of Romney, the sixth straight survey during the past nine months in which his image has been in negative territory.

Obama's image remains more positive among voters; 50 percent offer a favorable assessment of the president and 45 percent an unfavorable one.

Obama holds only a 4 percentage point edge -- 48 percent to 44 percent -- in 12 of this year's key battleground states, Pew said. Results didn't allow for a state-by-state analysis, Pew said, but the overall balance of support in closely contested states has been stable in recent months, with Obama slightly ahead, but neither candidate holding a significant advantage.

Results are based on a nationwide telephone survey conducted July 16-26 among 2,508 adults, including 1,956 registered voters. The margin of error is 2.8 percentage points for the overall sample and 3.2 percentage points for registered voters.