WASHINGTON – Voters who feel the economic outlook brightening after years of misery and believe Barack Obama is more in touch with people like themselves propelled the president to a second term. Mitt Romney suffered from being labeled a champion of the wealthy instead of the common man.

Americans interviewed as they left their polling places Tuesday were in wide agreement that the economy is still in sorry shape. But they were less likely to blame Obama than to point the finger at his predecessor, George W. Bush, according to preliminary results of the national exit poll.

Their biggest worries: chronic unemployment, hovering just under 8 percent, and rising prices.