With less than a week to go until the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan have some ground to cover as Barack Obama and Joe Biden maintain a healthy lead, according to recent NBC News / Wall Street Journal polls.
Overall, the polls place Obama and Biden four points ahead of their Republican opponents Romney and Ryan, with 48 percent to 44 percent apiece respectively.
However, the polls also showed a perhaps shocking result for Romney - while Obama has won over 94 percent of the African American vote, Romney has gotten zero percent.
Obama also maintains his lead among Latinos, people under 35 and female voters. Romney, however, leads in white voters, rural voters and senior citizens.
While Obama may hold an overall lead, analysts note that he is not yet in the clear and that Romney has a fighting chance. With both candidates under the 50 percent approval rating, it is nowhere near time to call a winner in what is shaping up to be a hotly competitive political battle.
In comparison to polls in June and July also conducted by NBC / WSJ, Obama has a slightly lesser lead over Romney in the 12 key swing states. In the earlier polls, Obama led by 8 points, but only leads by 3 points in the more recent statistics.
The comparison of polls between now and the June and July ones shows that Romney’s announcement of Paul Ryan as a running mate has had only a minor effect on his ratings. Prior to the Ryan announcement, there was a six point margin (49 percent to 43 percent) between Romney and Obama, and now there is a four percent split (48 percent to 44 percent).
12 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.EphraimKibbey | Aug 27, 2012, 09:27 PM EDT
@peterson - Don't get too excited, this is just one National poll (The Washington Post.) Romney was down by 2% in the previous one and the margin of error for both polls was 4%. They would have to be 5% apart for one or the other to be ahead statistically. Therefore they were and still are tied Nationally. Because of our electoral college system, the election will be won in the swing states so it is their poll results that you should be watching.
peterson | Aug 26, 2012, 03:37 PM EDT
8/28 The tide has turned and Romney & Ryan are ahead !!!
McNamara31 | Aug 25, 2012, 01:17 PM EDT
mairint "a president who promotes killing their babies" There you go again. Pull up Obama's speech at Notre Dame and read the what the president said about abortion.
Maggie47 | Aug 25, 2012, 09:36 AM EDT
lot of racial tone to this, or is it just me?
Cherball | Aug 24, 2012, 08:42 PM EDT
Unlike Ireland, the US doesn't need a hand out that Obama wants to give it's people. There is a change of seasons coming,and only God knows who will come out on top. I pray for the coming of the Son.
mairint | Aug 24, 2012, 08:37 PM EDT
Is the writer here implying that black Americans only vote according to skin tone? That they are not concerned about the survival of America? That they would be happy for the U.S.A. to become an Islamic ruled country? Think lads before you comment. Also in response to comment below re American women voting - do you mean all American women will only vote for a president who promotes killing their babies? What is in your heads?
eiriamach | Aug 24, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT
bob40wil should try checking out facts for a change. It's not true that most blacks don't vote. In the last presidential election, the voter turnout rate of non-Hispanic blacks "increased 4.9 percentage points, from 60.3% in 2004 to 65.3% in 2008, nearly matching the voter turnout rate of white eligible voters (66.1%)." Also, "The voter turnout rate among eligible black female voters increased ... from 63.7% in 2004 to 68.8% in 2008. Overall, among all racial, ethnic and gender groups, black women had the highest voter turnout rate in November's election -- a first" (Statistics from pew Research Center). The black/ Hispanic/ female vote will be a powerful force on November 6!
GuinnessGrrl | Aug 24, 2012, 01:53 PM EDT
Since there is usually a 3 point over/under on polls, does that mean that there's a chance that less than zero are for Romney/Ryan? Could African-American fetuses also be against them? LOL!
pilib04 | Aug 24, 2012, 01:37 PM EDT
After this week, I wouldn't be surprised if the percent of women supporting Robme-Ryan gets close to that zero percent figure.
bob40wil | Aug 24, 2012, 11:02 AM EDT
Blacks in the US constitute about 12% of the population and most don't vote.
travelmpq | Aug 24, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT
Even a head-in-the-sand liberal like you has to admit that if the same percentage of whites supported Romney as blacks do Obama, it would be called racism.
pndirishandprou | Aug 24, 2012, 10:19 AM EDT
great! But what exactly is the Irish or Irish-American connection to this article?