President Obama is leading Mitt Romney in Florida, according to a Washington Post poll released Tuesday.

In Florida, the president is up 51 to 47 percent among likely voters and nine percentage points among registered voters.

Obama is buoyed by a double-digit advantage among female voters. In Florida, 53 percent of men back Romney, and 45 percent support Obama. Romney has the edge among white voters, while Obama wins 74 percent of non-white likely voters.

Overall, 55 percent of voters approve of the job Obama doing, which puts him safely above the 50-percent threshold.  While a majority of voters say the country is on the “wrong track,” 52 percent approve of how Obama is handling the economy versus 47 percent that disapprove.

By a whopping 60 to 35 percent margin, Florida voters say they trust Obama rather than Romney to advance the interests of the middle class. By 14 percentage points, those polled side with the president as the one with greater empathy toward people’s economic problems. Obama is also running 15 percentage points ahead of his challenger on whom voters trust more to determine the future of Medicare.

One interesting point:  more voters say they’ve personally been contacted by a representative of the Romney campaign than the Obama campaign.

Tags | Barack Obama, Medicare, Mitt Romney, Poll, Washington Post