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.
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When releasing his New Hampshire results Friday, PPP’s Tom Jensen tweeted out: “NH voters think Obama won debate by 8 pts, still support Romney by 1. Democrats need to accept debate this week was not a big game changer.”
Why are voters, even ones who think Obama won the debate last Tuesday, still breaking for Romney? A clue can be found in the issue breakdowns of both post-debate polls. Undecided voters name Romney the better candidate on jobs and the economy, by commanding margins — CNN had Romney up 18 points on jobs, and CBS had him up 31 points.
A similar story developed during a focus group conducted by MSNBC after the debate Tuesday night. After every single one of MSNBC’s far-left anchors declared Obama the winner by a mile, most of their own hand-picked focus group of undecided voters said they were now leaning toward Romney, mostly on economic grounds.
“I’m more for Mitt Romney just because I feel like he’s gonna have more of a plan. He is a businessman. Businessmen can take care of it. He took care of Massachusetts, I think he can take care of us,” said one female voter.
Read more at The Washington Examiner
