Twenty percent of those surveyed said they’d consider voting for the candidate who they are not currently backing. Almost two-thirds of those possible switchers — 62 percent — were Romney supporters who could go with Obama, compared with 38 percent who said they back Obama now but could end up behind the Republican candidate.

Lake said the high unfavorables and lack of enthusiasm for Romney could help explain why he chose Ryan, a darling of fiscal conservatives widely expected to energize the race. “You can see why they would pick such a controversial more base-oriented candidate because, from our interpretation, the issues that Romney is having are with the base,” Lake said.

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Despite the close nature of the race, a majority of Americans think Obama will be reelected in November: 56 percent predicted Obama will win, compared with 33 percent who believe Romney will win.

Jobs, the economy and government spending still remain the top three issues on Americans’ minds. When asked for the most important issue for Congress to focus on, 26 percent said the economy, 17 percent said government spending and the budget deficit and 15 percent said jobs.

Economic factors still favor Romney as pessimism remains high. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed still say the country is on the wrong track, a slight increase from the 59 percent who said the same in May. And 41 percent of voters say the country is either in or approaching recession; 24 say the economy isn’t moving. Just under two-thirds of voters think the next generation will not be better off than the current one.

More Americans disapprove than approve of Obama’s handling of the economy: 44 percent said they approve, while 54 percent said they disapprove. On his handling of the federal budget and spending the gap is even bigger: 61 percent disapprove of Obama, compared with 37 percent who approve.

“President Obama has had to be running two campaigns: a campaign against Romney, and a campaign against the bad economy,” Goeas said.

Voters were fairly evenly split on how Obama’s policies have impacted the state of the economy: 40 percent said the policies had helped, 43 percent said they made things worse, and 15 percent said they had no impact.

And when asked which candidate would do a better job on economic issues, Romney led, 49 percent to 44 percent. On jobs, Romney now leads 50 percent to 44 percent – a category in which Obama had a slight lead in May. The two candidates were even, both at 47 percent, on the issue of taxes.

“At least to this point of the campaign, it has been much more a referendum than a choice,” Goeas said.

The POLITICO poll comes on the heels of a series of national surveys showing Obama with a solid lead in the race: both a CNN poll and a Reuters-Ipsos poll released last week found Obama 7 points ahead, and a Fox News poll gave him a 9-point lead.

Obama’s biggest issue lead came on the issue of foreign policy: Obama had a 15-point advantage there, following Romney’s three-country foreign trip that earned him a number of bad headlines.