UPI Poll: Obama, Romney statistically tied

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney were statistically tied among likely voters, a United Press International poll released Monday indicated.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters said they support Obama, while 46 percent said they favor Romney, within the poll's 4.5 percentage point margin of error, results of the UPI-CVOTER poll indicated.

Opinion was nearly evenly split among likely voters about how Obama has handled his job, with 46 percent approving his performance so far and 45 percent disapproving, results showed.

Obama drew a mixed response concerning his handling of U.S. foreign policy, with 41 percent saying the U.S. stature globally worsened under Obama while 35 percent said it improved.

Nearly one in every three likely voters said their standard of living has fallen off during the last year while 20 percent said it improved, the UPI poll indicated. Nearly half said their standard of living has remained the same.

Twenty-six percent of respondents said they don't expect the U.S. economy to recover in the short term, but 55 percent said it may turn around within the next three years. Results indicated about 7 percent said the U.S. economy would never be the same and 2 percent said it was unaffected.

The economy remained the top issue facing the country for the 86 percent of respondents, followed by the lack of jobs, cited by 83 percent.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews Sept. 16-22 with 1,000 adults, 761 who indicated they were likely voters. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points for the total sample and 4.5 percentage points for likely voters.