The following is an excerpt from Michael Riley | October 21, 2012 | Barrons.com |
Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, is tied at 47 percent with President Barack Obama in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of likely voters released 16 days before the election.
In a nationwide survey conducted Oct. 17-20, Romney pulled even with the incumbent Democratic president for the first time this year, showing the race continuing to tighten as the Nov. 6 balloting approaches. The poll of 816 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
“This is going to be a very close race and we’ve said that consistently,” David Axelrod, senior political strategist for the Obama campaign, said today on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Axelrod said the Obama campaign believes the president remained ahead in battleground states.
Surveys taken during the past week have shown the former Massachusetts governor narrowing or eliminating Obama’s lead in most closely divided swing states. Romney picked up momentum after winning the first debate on Oct. 3 in Denver.
Romney has erased a five-point lead that Obama held in the same NBC/WSJ survey in mid-September, which had narrowed to a three-point advantage by late last month. Among the larger pool of 1,000 registered voters in the most recent survey, Obama is leads Romney 49 percent to 44 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Male, Female Support
The poll found Romney leads among men, 53 percent to 43 percent, and Obama leads among women, 51 percent to 43 percent. Romney’s support among men has grown in the past month while Obama’s advantage among women has fallen slightly, according to a summary of the poll from the Wall Street Journal.
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