PPP's daily national tracking poll now finds Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 50-47 based on interviews conducted between Thursday and Saturday. This is the first time either candidate has led by more than 2 points in the three weeks we've been doing this survey. Obama has led in 4 individual days of polling in a row since Wednesday, suggesting that he may be getting a bounce based on his leadership during Hurricane Sandy.
Obama's approval is now on positive ground at 48/47. On our release last Saturday night he was at 44/52, so his net approval has improved 9 points in the last week. Obama's net favorability rating of +5 (51/46) is now 7 points better than Romney's is at -2 (47/49).
There are a couple reasons Obama has pulled into this small lead. One is that he's turned what had been a persistent disadvantage with independents into a 49/44 advantage. The other is that he's reduced what had been a 20+ point deficit with white voters back down to a 57/40 spread. When you combine that with his 89/9 lead among African Americans and 67/28 edge with Hispanics it's the formula for a small overall lead.
There are also indications that young voters might be renewing their enthusiasm for Obama in the closing stage of the campaign. He's leading 66/33 with respondents under 30, making up for his 49/47 deficit with the rest of the electorate.
It's still a very close race but momentum seems to be on Obama's side in the closing stretch.
full results here:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_TrackingPoll_113.pdfRead more:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/11/obama-leads-50-47-nationally.html
