Presidential Polls: Democrats Panic as Romney Opens 7 Point Lead

Impact

As President Obama sits with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart to try to do some damage control regarding the 9/11 Benghazi attack in Libya, polls continue to show a concerning trend against the president's reelection changes and toward a potential Mitt Romney victory on November 6.   

A new Gallup poll, a seven-day tracking survey of likely voters, says Republican challenger Mitt Romney is now leading Obama by 7 percentage points, 52% to 45%. Among registered voters, the former governor of Massachusetts' lead over the president is only of 1 percentage point. 

The Gallup survey follows the "outlier" trend the Obama campaign dismissed earlier in the week when a USA Today/Gallup poll found Romney leading Obama by 5 percentage points in swing states thanks to increased support from both female and independent voters. 

Though the race between the president and Mitt Romney remained close during the period preceding the Republican and Democratic conventions, Obama opened a comfortable lead both at the national level and in swing states following his post-DNC bump (the Romney/Ryan ticket did not enjoy such poll bump). 

But after the first presidential debate, in which Romney was largely seen as having defeated the president, the race's dynamics shifted towards a Republican surge not only at the national level and in swing states but also among different demographics. The trend has all but erased Obama's pre-debates lead and put the race in a statistical dead heat that -- excluding a landslide final debate win for either candidate -- will be so until the bitter end.