Poll: Obama up by 4 points, edges Romney on economic issues

President Obama leads challenger Mitt Romney by 4 points in a new national survey released Monday that shows some encouraging signs for the incumbent president on economic matters.

Obama leads the presumptive Republican nominee 50 to 46 percent in the poll, released Monday by the Democratic-leaning Democracy corps. Two percent of voters remain undecided, while an additional 2 percent plan to support a third-party candidate.

The president is buoyed in the poll by some of his strongest approval ratings in recent months. The poll found that half of Americans approve — and a third strongly approve — of Obama's handling of his job as president. Conversely, 46 percent disapprove of the president's work.

The president also edged — albeit narrowly — his Republican challenger on economic issues, traditionally thought to be a strength for Romney. Of those surveyed, 45 percent said the president was able to do a better job with the economy, versus 44 percent who picked Romney. Obama held a seven-point advantage when respondents were asked which candidate was "on your side," and the president held a 12-point advantage on the question of which candidate better shared voters' values.

That could be evidence that the president's persistent attacks on Romney's personal finances are working — or that the GOP challenger is still struggling to get out from under voter dissatisfaction with the Republican Congress.

Asked to describe their feelings as "warm" or "cool," voters described their reaction toward the Republican Party as shaded a net 13 points towards "cool," while Republicans in Congress held an 18-point deficit. Conversely, Democrats in general only carried a net three-point "cool" rating, while Democrats in Congress saw a eight-point negative reception.

While 49 percent of voters said they had a "warm" sense about the president — versus just 41 percent with a "cool" feeling — Romney saw 46 percent of respondents say they felt "cool" toward him, versus just 38 percent who felt "warm."

Still, not all the news was good for Democrats. Voters were far more likely — by a 58 to 36 percent margin — to say the country was headed in the wrong track. And despite voters feeling more warmly about the president's party, that hasn't translated into an advantage in congressional polling. On a generic ballot, Democrats and Republicans split evenly, each earning 46 percent of respondents.

The firm polled 700 respondents in its survey, and had a 3.7 percentage point margin of error.

---