By Brittany Foster, Keegan Gibson and John McDonald

Franklin and Marshall released this morning a new poll of Pennsylvania voter opinions, and suffice it to say the Commonwealth is not happy.

A majority of Keystone State residents (53 percent) believe the state is headed in the wrong direction, while just one-third of voters rate the job performance of President Obama or any given one of the state’s top elected officials as “excellent” or “good.”  Thirty-two percent gave Governor Tom Corbett and U.S. Senator Bob Casey positive marks, while U.S. Senator Pat Toomey stood at 29 percent.

President Obama fared only slightly better.  Thirty four percent of registered voters gave him positive job performance marks, while a full third (33 percent) said he’s doing “only a fair job” — numbers essentially unchanged since Franklin & Marshall’s March 2011 survey.

By a ten point margin, Keystone State voters believe it’s “time for a change” more than they think the President deserves re-election (52 to 42 percent).

However, those less-than-stellar sentiments don’t translate into GOP gains in hypothetical presidential matchups.  President Obama still maintains a lead over four Republican challengers, topping former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by six percent (36-30), former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum by eight points (39-31), and Texas Governor Rick Perry (38-27) among registered voters.  Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann fared the worst among the GOP hopefuls, garnering just 23 percent to President Obama’s 42 percent.

The poll results were based on interviews conducted between August 22 and August 29 with 525 Keystone State residents — 407 registered voters among them.  The margin of error was +/- 4.3 percent.

The poll also dealt with a number of issues facing legislators in Harrisburg – particularly Marcellus Shale natural gas. Check back with PoliticsPA later this morning for that story.