Presidential Polls 2012: Obama Losing Support in Calif., NJ
The latest in presidential polls shows President Obama losing a big chunk of the support he saw in the 2008 election in California and New Jersey.
In the blue state of California, Obama still holds the lead over Republican candidate Mitt Romney but with a much smaller margin compared to four years ago. The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Time poll shows Obama with a 14-point edge. In 2008, he won the state with a 24-point victory.
The decline in support is also seen in New Jersey. According to The Inquirer New Jersey Poll, conducted Tuesday through Thursday, Obama has a 10-point lead over Romney, which falls short of the 16-point margin of victory he had there in 2008.
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The latest polls indicate that support for Obama is not as strong this year as it was the first time he ran for president and he may lose the national popular vote.
Gallup's daily tracking poll shows registered voters as split (48 to 48 percent) between the two presidential candidates. And among likely voters, Romney has the edge (51 percent to 46 percent). Obama's approval rating has also dropped three percentage points to 48 percent.
Obama and Romney had their third and final presidential debate on foreign policy on Monday and polls show voters either deeming Obama the winner or calling it a tie. Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans who watched the debate believe Obama did a better job while only 33 percent said Romney did the better job. A CNN/ORC poll found that the debate was largely a tie. It also showed that 24 percent of people who watched the debate said it made them more likely to vote for Obama and a quarter said it made them more likely to vote for Romney.
Overall, when scoring the candidates on all three debates combined, Romney has the edge. Gallup found 46 percent felt Romney did the better job overall while 44 percent said the same for Obama.
The presidential election is less than two weeks away.
