Polls

Poll finds Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney narrowing to 5 points

by Meghashyam Mali - 09/18/12 11:14 AM ET

A new poll shows President Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney narrowing to 5 points.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Obama holding 48 percent support from likely voters to the GOP challenger’s 43.

That figure is down from the 48-41 percent edge Obama held in the same poll last Thursday, but Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said it was still positive news for the president, showing him maintaining his post-convention bounce.

{mosads}“My takeaway is that it’s pretty decent news for Obama that his bump is sustaining so long and he may be turning the post-convention bump into a lead,” said Clark.

The poll shows Obama doing better on the central issue of the economy, with 37 percent of registered voters saying Obama had a better plan for the recovery and 34 percent preferring Romney’s approach. In the same poll last week, Obama led by 36 to 35 percent on that question.

Forty percent surveyed supported Obama on jobs, with 36 tapping Romney.

Clark said the poll had found a slight “shift” on the economy, with voters now giving the president the edge. “People are not really quite as nervous about the economy as they were a couple of months ago,” said Clark.

Voters, though, believed Romney would do better on tackling the government’s budget deficit, at 34 percent to 29 for the president.

Overall, the poll found Obama with large leads on many key issues. The president was ahead of Romney by 12 points on healthcare, 13 on taxes, 16 on Medicare and 13 on Social Security.

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The poll, though, was conducted before a leaked video of Romney speaking to voters at a closed-door private fundraiser surfaced Monday. In that video, Romney was shown saying that 47 percent of Americans are “dependent upon government,” and “believe they are victims.”

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted from Sept. 12 to 17 and has a 5 percent margin of error.

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