Reuters just released their new poll of the presidential candidates’ debate performances, and, like every other poll, it finds that President Obama has won the second presidential debate against former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. The poll shows 48 percent of registered voters say President Obama won and 33 percent say Mitt Romney won. President Obama also came out on top in the CBS News Poll of undecided voters, which had him at 37 to 30 percent, with 33 percent of the undecided voters also undecided about who won. (CBS found Romney won the first debate 46 to 22 percent.)
The Democratic-leaning polling organization PPP of North Carolina took a “snap poll” in Colorado, a swing state, and found President Obama won the debate among voters there, 48 percent to 44. PPP also found that independents in Colorado favored the President by a much larger margin, 58 to 36 percent.
We won’t know exactly how the debate was seen by the country at large until more polls come out in a few days; PPP says they will release a new poll of Colorado voters later this week. The Gallup organization is constantly polling and it will take a few days before the debate likely registers on the Presidential daily tracking poll and the seven day weekly average.
Here is how Reuters reported on their poll:
The poll reflects the broad consensus of debate observers who said Obama’s forceful approach gave him the upper hand over Romney, who was widely seen as the victor in their first matchup on Oct. 3. “Clearly the debate was a bit of a turnaround for Obama. He put in a much stronger performance than he did in the first debate and it’s showing in the numbers,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark. Pundits and political analysts have spent the day calling wins and losses. Paul Ryan said on the TODAY program this morning that he believed Governor Romney won the night; writer Andrew Sullivan told msnbc last night that he was brought off the ledge after watching President Obama’s strong performance; and conservative Columnist George Will gave a narrow win to the president, but a bigger win to the debate itself, saying it was the best Presidential debate he has ever seen. One more to go.
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