The latest surveys of likely voters show President Barack Obama pulling ahead. But Republicans and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney may have an opportunity to cast doubt on Obama's foreign policy as unrest rises in the Middle East.
President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at the Cashman Center, Wednesday in Las Vegas. It is unclear if the recent attack in Libya and the increasing unrest in the Middle East will harm or hurt Obama's reelection campaign, though he currently leads in the polls.
David Becker/AP
EnlargePresident Barack Obama is pulling away from rival Mitt Romney in polls in what might be a turning point in the US presidential campaign, but volatility in the Middle East is allowing Republicans to cast the Democrat as weak on foreign policy and could threaten his momentum.
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In the latest survey to show Obama ahead, a Reuters/Ipsos online poll on Thursday gave the Democrat a 7 percentage point lead, 48 percent to 41 percent, among likely voters.
Survey aggregator Real Clear Politics' average of national polls gives Obama a 3.3-point advantage while Gallup's seven-day tracking poll of registered voters has Obama leading by 6 points, one more than a Fox News survey of likely voters.
After months of a neck-and-neck race for the Nov. 6 election, the recent data has stirred speculation that Obama may have reached a breakaway moment helped by the Democrats' convention in North Carolina last week when they laid out a case for his re-election.
"This election is far from over, and we're not inclined to make a final call until the first debate on Oct. 3, but this seems clear: the election is slipping away from Romney," said Greg Valliere of Potomac Research Group which analyzes Washington for investors.
But in a reminder of how campaigns can shift easily, Republicans began building a strong argument against Obama for failing to stop the rise of Islamists in Egypt and Libya, where the US ambassador was killed in an attack this week.
It is unclear whether Obama's lead in the polls is a residue of positive feeling from the convention, or due to more specific reasons like voter concern at the Republican ticket's plans for Medicare or Democratic ads attacking Romney's business record.
Poll leads at this stage in the race can evaporate quickly, as Republican Senator John McCain's did in the 2008 campaign.
But Obama seems to be doing something right to be able to stay ahead despite high unemployment, underscored by poor jobless figures last week. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Obama with a slight lead of 38 percent over 35 percent on which candidate has a better plan on jobs.
"You'd rather be in Obama's shoes today than Romney's," said Peter Brown, a pollster for Quinnipiac University.
In key states, the numbers looked grim for Romney this week too.
An EPIC-MRA poll showed Obama up 10 points in Michigan, Romney's birthplace and a state where conservative groups supporting him pulled back advertising dollars this week.
A poll released on Tuesday showed Obama up 4 points in Ohio, one of the top three battleground states.
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