With the GOP primaries all but over and Mitt Romney to be the inevitable victor the race is now focusing in on the larger Presidential Election this November. Yesterday major news outlets have released their first presidential polling numbers between the two likely Presidential candidates with slightly mixed reviews. While one polling site shows Romney with a slight advantage over Obama, another shows the President with a much larger lead. So what is the average citizen to take from these seemingly conflicting results? What we should take from these polls is that the political landscape is changing, Romney no longer has to compete with other GOP contenders , and is already looking to reach out to the independent voters that he has been struggling to gain support from in recent polls. Without having to defend off attacks from his own party Mitt Romney can work to close in on the gap left by both women and independent voters that has developed during the primaries.

What the general election is really going to come down to is which candidate the people find more favorable, a recent poll shows Romney as having one of the lowest favorable ratings of any candidate in three decades. The second important matter is who the people think will be able to handle the economy the best in the upcoming years, here Romney holds an edge over Obama. The disputes in the recent general election polls do make one thing very clear, this is going to be a very long and very close Presidential Election.

We live in a world where social media reigns supreme and every sound bite and campaign promise can instantly receive millions of views and “go viral” in a matter of minutes. The Romney campaign came under attack earlier this year. A Romney aide made a comment comparing the GOP primary campaign strategy to an “etch-a-sketch” being wiped clean for each new state primary. Facebook and Twitter however, ensure that trying to remodel your campaign is all but impossible with social media. Each and every moment on the campaign trail will be reviewed, replayed, and reused for a multitude of attacks by both parties. Romney spent much of his primary run trying to convince the most conservative members of the GOP that he is a candidate that shares their ideals. That strategy however already appears to be hurting Romney’s poll numbers among both women and independent voters. This blank slate strategy that doesn’t exist in the world of social media is going to hurt Romney when he want to appear more moderate to sway independents in the general election. The Obama campaign has already released what they are calling “Romney’s Greatest Hits” highlighting some of the statements made during the primary tour. No doubt we will soon have videos of Obama’s 2008 campaign about hope and change being torn to shreds shortly. When every action and spoken word is captured and endlessly scrutinized it makes any politicians job incredibly difficult and changes the way that the  presidential election is conducted. Every statement can be twisted into an attack and then those attacks must be constantly defended, this campaign then might very well come down to which candidate can embrace and utilize the rise of social media most effectively.

With Mitt Romney’s most recent sweep of GOP primaries it seems as though he has locked down the GOP nomination he has even been turning his campaign to focus more on Obama and the upcoming general election. There is however a gap that is looming for Romney recent political polls shows that Romney is losing footing with independent women voters. While the RNC wave off claims that Republicans are waging a “war on women” that doesn’t negate the fact that Romney who was formerly leading the President in polls of independent women is now trailing by a wide margin of 14 points. Independent women are a key demographic for both candidates in the upcoming Presidential election. Many political analysts are now seeing that narrowing the gender gap will be essential for the Republican campaign to succeed come November. The political landscape for the upcoming elections is just heating up to stay informed on all of the latest poll results for your candidates and for the latest in political news check out Poll Headlines.