Before the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, Mitt Romney trailed President Obama 49 percent to 46 percent in the RealClearPolitics national poll average. After Americans got to meet the real Romney during the first presidential debate — not the caricature created by Obama’s omnipresent negative television ads — Romney pulled ahead of Obama in the RCP average, 47 percent to 46 percent.

Democrats had hoped the second debate would provide a more aggressive Obama an opportunity to expose the debate Romney as a fraud. And two flash polls taken after Tuesday’s debate did show that Obama narrowly won the debate. But Romney has maintained a narrow lead on Obama in national polls since the debate, and more and more swing states have begun to move his way. According to Rasmussen Reports, Romney now leads by 5 in Florida, 6 in North Carolina and 3 in Virginia. And according to Public Policy Polling, the same liberal polling firm that does surveys for the Service Employees International Union, Romney is now narrowly ahead in New Hampshire.