Quinnipiac Poll: Obama gains ground against GOP candidates in Ohio

[WI_DEM]

Stop us if you've heard this one before: in a key battleground state, one essential to Barack Obama's chances and rich in electoral votes, the president's numbers are sagging. His job approval is underwater, and his re-elect numbers sag into the low-to-mid 40s.

Yet despite all of that, he remains ahead of his leading Republican challengers, proving for the 328th time this cycle that the quality of one's opposition does matter come election time.

Today's data point to (once again) confirm this meme comes from a poll released midweek by the folks at Quinnipiac, who not only have the president leading his GOP suitors, but actually incrementally pulling away from them.

Quinnipiac. 10/17-23. Registered Ohio voters. MoE 2.4% (Sept results in parentheses)

Barack Obama (D): 45 (44)
Mitt Romney (R): 41 (42)
Barack Obama (D): 47 (--)
Herman Cain (R): 39 (--)

Barack Obama (D): 47 (44)
Rick Perry (R): 36 (41)

www.dailykos.com

[FiveGoodMen]

1. He should really win the GOP primary.

[Pab Sungenis]

2. Yes, but

he's still under 50% in each matchup, which puts the state in play.

Hopefully he'll be able to pull ahead in the next year.