A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll finds the presidential race between President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to be very close, with Romney leading by a single point — 48% to 47%, among likely voters.
More important is the 10-point lead, 48% to 38%, Romney has among the critical Independents voters. That confirms Romney’s six point lead among Independets that Gallup found last month.
The Battleground poll also found that Romney has a “6-point lead among those who describe themselves as extremely likely to vote in November.”
Other interesting findings from the new Battleground poll include:
- Obama’s job approval rating stands at 48 percent, down five points from February.
- Most respondents have already made up their minds about how to vote in the fall: Forty-three percent said with certainty they will vote to reelect Obama, and 42 percent said they will vote to replace the president.
- Romney is closing the gender gap — Obama leads among women by seven points, while Romney has the same lead among male voters. Obama leads among women younger than 45, 57% to 39%, while Romney leads among women older than 45, 50% to 45%.
In an interesting contrast to a message team Obama was spinning on the Sunday talk shows, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake who helped conduct the bipartisan poll admitted, “the Democrats are less enthusiastic than the Republicans.”
The POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll was conducted from April 29 to May 3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.