Post-DNC Bump Increases Obama’s Lead In The Polls

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Saturday shows President Barrack Obama has increased his narrow lead over Mitt Romney in the presidential race.

Reuters reports that the Democrat Obama has a lead of four percentage points of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The daily tracking poll showed 47 percent of 1,457 likely voters surveyed online during the past four days told pollsters they’d vote Obama, while 43 percent of them said they’d vote Romney.

Reuters/Ipsos polls are measured on a credibility interval and Reuters reported this poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

The Alaska Dispatch also reported Obama increasing his lead in Gallup and Rasmussen polls in the wake of the Democratic National Convention. With 58 days until the election, the Dispatch quoted various sources saying the president may have moved into the position of frontrunner as we enter the stretch run of the election.

“The question now is not whether Mr. Obama will get a bounce in the polls, but how substantial it will be,” statistician and poll watcher Nate Silver, who blogs for the New York Times, said. “Some of the data, in fact, suggests that the conventions may have changed the composition of the race, making Mr. Obama a reasonably clear favorite as we enter the stretch run of the campaign.”

Perhaps as important as the overall bump in the polls is Obama’s lead in so-called “favorable characteristics.” Fifty percent of those polled said Obama is more eloquent (25 percent said Romney). Obama led in “smart enough for the job” 46 to 37 percent. President Obama also led in “represents America” and “has the right values.” The only category that saw Romney have an advantage was being “a man of faith,” as 44 percent picked Romney, who is Mormon. Thirty-one percent chose for Obama, who is Christian.