UPI Poll: Obama holds lead over Romney

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama holds a 4 percentage-point lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a United Press International poll released Sunday.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters said they support Obama while 45 percent of likely voters said they back Romney, just beyond the 3 percentage point margin of error, results of the UPI-CVOTER poll indicated.

Voters also said they have a more favorable opinion of Obama than they have of Romney on five of six national issues polled by UPI.

The largest margin favoring Obama was on the question of who would better handle the issue of healthcare, with 42 percent likely voters citing Obama and 30 percent naming for Romney. About 15 percent said neither candidate was capable of handling it.

Besides healthcare, results indicated likely voters favored Obama on questions of jobs and job-outsourcing, food cost inflation and tax policy-related matters.

Romney was considered the better man by 28 percent on handling fluctuating gas prices while Obama was favored by 23 percent.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews conducted Sept. 8-14 with 3,000 registered voters. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.