Some 40 percent of voters now think the administration’s response in Libya was poor and 51 percent believe President Barack Obama’s re-election will be hurt by the situation, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows.

The poll comes as the controversy over the administration’s actions heats up and more questions are raised about what they knew and when did they know it. The administration blamed the September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans including the U.S. ambassador on spontaneous protests over an anti-Islamic video posted on YouTube despite indications that it was a terrorist assault.

Nonetheless, voters continue to place more trust in Obama to handle events in the Middle East than in GOP challenger Mitt Romney by a 49 to 45 percent margin, up a point from a previous Rasmussen poll. Independent voters, by a margin of 49 percent to 38 percent, support Obama on this question over Romney.

The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters October 13-14.