October 8, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Gallup: Post-Debate Poll: Obama and Romney Tied At 47 Percent
In Gallup’s pre-debate poll conducted September 30th to October 2nd, President Obama led Mitt Romney 50% to 45%. In Gallup’s post-debate poll conducted October 4th to October 6th, the race is now even at 47 percent. Gallup also asked who won the debate, and 72% said Romney, 20% said Obama. I’m not sure what debate that 20% were watching. Although to be fair, a number of people who said Obama won the debate may have ranked substance over style, and in that case, Obama did win the debate. But since style is unfortunately what matters in these debates, there is really no disputing that Romney won.
Registered voters’ preferences for president are evenly split in the first three days of Gallup tracking since last Wednesday’s presidential debate. In the three days prior to the debate, Barack Obama had a five-percentage-point edge among registered voters. – Romney Narrows Vote Gap After Historic Debate Win
Obviously polls could shift even further in Romney’s favor over the coming days and so it puts more pressure on Vice President Joe Biden to have a good performance in the VP debate this Thursday. The good news is that the electoral math will continue to favor President Obama, who has many paths to victory in this election. Over at FiveThirtyEight Blog, Nate Silver still shows Obama with a 78.4% chance of victory with 307.6 electoral votes (as of Sunday evening, 10/7).
