Presidential Election Polls 2012: GOP Nominee Widens Lead To 4 Points
Mitt Romney has officially opened up his lead in national presidential election polls to the widest margin the race has seen in months.
The two presidential candidates have been at or near a tie over the last few days, with Romney enjoying a lead in many polls and President Barack Obama just behind him or even ahead in other separate surveys.
But data from national polling firm Rasmussen showed Romney ahead of Obama by four percentage points as of Tuesday, Oct. 23 - exactly two weeks until Election Day.
According to Rasmussen, Romney has support from 50 percent of the voters surveyed nationwide, while Obama falls behind him with support from only 46 percent. Of the remaining respondents, 1 percent prefer a different third-party candidate and 2 percent are still undecided.
The margin is significant for Romney, as this marks the biggest gap the race has recently seen.
"Other than brief convention bounces, this is the first time either candidate has led by more than three points in months," Rasmussen's daily update said.
Though Obama trails in countrywide polls, his campaign advisor David Axelrod said on Sunday's edition of "Meet The Press" that national polls are "all over the map" and not entirely representative of how the race will shape up. Because of the Electoral College, the race for the presidency will be fought on a state-by-state basis rather than a national one, and Axelrod said the president's victory for a second term will be solidified in swing states like Ohio.
"We feel we're even or ahead in these battleground states," he said. "If you look at the early voting that's going on around the country, it's very robust and it's very favorable to us. And we think that's a better indicator than these public polls, which are frankly all over the map."
