Obama vs Romney Polls: As Obama Opens National Lead, Romney Caves on Health Care

President Obama has opened a post convention four-point lead nationally over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, according to two new polls reported on Sunday by The Hill. That's probably the Romney camp is scrambling to explain that even as he intends to repeal the president's health care law, he'd keep the pre-existing conditions provision of the controversial bill.   

However, there's a silver lining for the former governor of Massachusetts in the new polling numbers. The surveys don't reflect yet the public's sentiment in regards to the August jobs report released on Friday that says the economy added only 96,000 jobs last month. 

But in the current and hectic new cycle, any good news -- albeit brief -- is good news to try to build momentum among donors and supporters as well as in the campaign trail. That's why Obama's post DNC bounce will be used by Democrats as a rallying cry to fire up supporters and volunteers in the final stretch of a crucial election. 

And they'll use Gallup's daily tracking poll, which has Obama leading Romney nationally 49% to 45% (a 1-point increase for Obama from Friday's result, effectively reflecting voter sentiment right after the final day of the DNC). Friday's polling put Obama's job approval rating at 52 percent, but Gallup says it will know by the middle of next week if the bounce will be lasting. 

Similarly, a Reuters/Ipsos daily-tracking poll released Saturday also gave Obama a 4-point lead, with the president leading the former governor of Massachusetts 47% to 43% among likely voters. “The bump is actually happening,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark. "How big it'll be and how long it will last remains to be seen," she added.

Meanwhile, and perhaps trying to do some damage control over the hard right stances he took during the Republican primary, Romney said on NBC's Meet the Press that he would keep health insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions even as he vows to replace President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law on the first day of his presidency.

“I’m not getting rid of all of health-care reform. Of course there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Romney said. “One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage,” he added.