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DRIVEN down by economic forces, President Barack Obama is running poorly in New Hampshire, a state he carried in 2008 and one that has been a swing state in recent presidential elections.

Obama trails Republican Mitt Romney among likely general election voters in the state by 10 percentage points in a hypothetical contest amid voter discontent with the President’s job performance and the economy, according to a Bloomberg News poll conducted November 10 and 11. Obama carried New Hampshire by 54 percent to 45 percent in 2008.

Independent voters in the state, the site of the nation’s first presidential primary, have swung even more strongly against Obama. Romney would win independents there by 15 percentage points, the poll shows Obama has been a “lackluster” president with “no steady plan to create jobs,” says poll respondent Karl Swanson, 61, a marketing consultant and political independent who lives in Rye.
Obama’s standing illustrates the toll the US economy has taken on him even in a state that has fared better than most. New Hampshire’s 5.4-percent unemployment rate in September compares with a 9-percent national rate in October. And the Bloomberg State Index of New Hampshire stocks is up 75 percent since Obama took office versus a 48 percent rise in the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index as of the market’s close in New York on Tuesday.

The United States has deported more than 1 million illegal immigrants under Obama, removing an average of nearly 400,000 per year — a record rate that has drawn criticism from immigrant advocates who charge that the policy is tearing apart families and punishing harmless workers. Administration officials have said they are targeting criminals for deportation.

AMONG the eight major Republican presidential candidates, Romney exerts the strongest pull on the state’s voters. He draws more than twice as much support as Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who comes in second among likely New Hampshire primary voters, according to the Bloomberg poll.

The poll of New Hampshire residents has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, as does the survey of likely primary voters. The survey of likely general election voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.