Within the past few days, President Obama has managed to win the praise of Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, successfully working across the aisle with his response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. And with four days left until Election Day, he has scored the endorsement of both New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg and business bible The Economist.
But on top of that, Obama has also experienced a bump in polls. Polls released within the last week are evidence of momentum shifting in favor of the President.
Case in point: a Purple Strategies poll released Friday finds Obama leading by 1 point nationally. Both ABC News/Washington Post and Public Policy Polling’s results on Thursday reveal the same 1-point margin, with Obama in the lead. Just a few days prior on October 31, ABC News/Washington Post reported the two were at a tie, and one day before that Romney had a 1 point lead.
The largest margin, however, is the 5-point lead a National Journal poll finds Obama has over Governor Romney.
As of Friday, our polling average here at Poll Headlines has Obama leading at 47.92% to Romney’s 47%. If taken at face value, polls clearly show the surge Republican candidate Mitt Romney experienced just weeks ago is now shrinking.
Of course, these improving numbers could be the result of the President’s handling of the Hurricane Sandy crisis. Perhaps even a form of negative reaction to Romney’s misleading ads indicating Chrysler/Jeep’s intentions to move jobs to China. Or maybe, as Nate Silver notes, indicative that Romney’s recent momentum did not really exist at all.
In any case, even the notably conservative pollster Rasmussen shows Obama is closing the gap on Romney’s lead. On Friday, Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll shows Romney and Obama are now tied nationally at 48%. A FOX News poll released on October 31 finds the two candidates both attracting support from 46% of voters while UPI/CVoter reports a dead heat at 48%.
Romney does have a strong chance of capturing the popular vote. But electoral votes are still in favor of President Obama and his re-election now appears even more likely.
