Despite Weak Approval, Obama Leads Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in Q-Poll of Florida

Quinnipiac University released a poll on Wednesday showing Barack Obama ahead of the two leading Republican presidential hopefuls in Florida.

The poll shows Obama beating Republican hopeful Mitt Romney in Florida, with the Democrat incumbent taking 49 percent and the former Massachusetts governor following with 42 percent. Obama does better when matched up against Rick Santorum, taking 50 percent, while the Republican follows with 37 percent.

Quinnipiac also released polls on Wednesday showing Obama leading the Republican hopefuls in two other swing states -- Ohio and Santorums home base of Pennsylvania.

"President Barack Obama is on a roll in the key swing states, said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. If the election were today, he would carry at least two states. And if history repeats itself, that means he would be re-elected. But the election is not today; it is seven months away. Two months ago, President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney were in a statistical tie in Ohio and Florida."

Despite leading the Republican hopefuls, the poll finds Floridians remain wary of Obama, who carried the Sunshine State in 2008. Only 47 percent of the Florida voters surveyed approve of Obamas performance while 49 percent disapprove of his job in the White House. While half -- 50 percent -- think Obama deserves four more years in the White House, almost the same number of Floridians -- 47 percent -- do not think he deserves to be re-elected.

The poll also finds Gov. Rick Scott is upside down, with 52 percent disapproving of his performance in office while 36 percent approve of it.

The poll of 1,228 Florida voters was taken March 20-26 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.