Washington, Oct. 3 (ANI): Americans remain overwhelmingly pessimistic about the country's sluggish economy, yet appear poised to re-elect President Barack Obama because of perceptions that he understands their lives better than Republican nominee Mitt Romney and would do more to favour the middle class rather than the very wealthy.
A national survey released by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute gives Obama a four percentage-point lead over Romney nationwide (49 to 45 percent).
The HuffPost Pollster tracking model shows Obama leading in the national popular vote by a slightly larger margin (48.9 to 44.3 percent) among likely voters.
The latest polls confirm that Obama continued to have an advantage over Romney.
Voters remain as dour about the economy as ever. Four out of five voters (81 percent) on the Quinnipiac poll and the recent Washington Post/ABC News survey rate the condition of the national economy as not so good or poor.
According to the Huffington Post, most also remain pessimistic about the future.
On the Post/ABC poll, three out of four voters (78 percent) say they are worried about the direction of the nation's economy, and 61 percent are worried about their own family's financial situation.
On the Quinnipiac poll, only 39 percent think the economy is getting better, a number much higher among Democrats (75 percent) than Republicans (7 percent).
In the Quinnipiac poll, just 42 percent said they blame Obama more for the state of the economy, while 50 percent blame former President George W. Bush.
Another component is that voters are pessimistic about the ability of either candidate to make a real difference. On the Quinnipiac survey, just 28 percent of voters believe that Obama's economic policies will help their personal financial situation, but only 35 percent said the same about Romney.
But the biggest factor is simply that, despite the poor economic performance of the past four years, voters have concluded that Obama better understands their needs and will be more likely to favor all Americans or the middle class, rather than the wealthy, the report added. (ANI)