Barack Obama, Poll | featured news

A pair of fresh polls is showing familiar results: The presidential race is essentially a dead heat. A New York Times/CBS poll released Thursday shows Mitt Romney’s support at 47% of registered voters, with President Obama at 46%. A Fox News poll Obama at 45% and Romney at 41%. Both results are within the polls’ margins of error and show very little movement from surveys taken earlier in the summer.

In a campaign fast growing nasty, the Republican National Committee is trying a gentler approach... Several Republicans who weren't involved in making the ad say a softer approach may be essential to the effort to defeat Obama in November, given polls showing him with strong personal favorability ratings. The ad is airing in Ohio, Virginia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa.

Substantial prejudice still exists for both Mormons and African Americans, despite shifting views on both groups since Barack Obama and Mitt Romney first ran for president four years ago.

Citing a poll conducted by Global Strategy Group and Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group in the battleground states of Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida, Priorities USA claimed that more voters say Romney’s experience at Bain makes them less likely to vote for him, 37% to 27%. Claiming that its own anti-Bain ads are working, Priorities USA pointed out that in the 11 markets they’ve advertised in within those five states, Obama leads Romney by eight points (49% to 41%) compared with a three-point lead in those without the ads (46% to 43%).

Voter support for President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul has increased following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling upholding it, although majorities still oppose it, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed. Among all registered voters, support for the law rose to 48 percent in the online survey conducted after Thursday's ruling, up from 43 percent before the court decision. Opposition slipped to 52 percent from 57 percent.

Americans are split down the middle on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Obama's health care law.

Americans find both President Obama and Republican opponent Mitt Romney likable -- Obama more so, reports the Gallup Poll. Presented with a list of eight personal characteristics that could describe the candidates, 81% of respondents said Obama "is likable;" 64% said the same of Romney.

President Barack Obama's endorsement of gay marriage appears to have made Americans on both sides of the issue even more entrenched in their positions, firing up his young, liberal backers and intensifying opposition from Republicans and conservatives, according to a new poll.

The poll follows a recent trend showing Romney catching up to Obama in Michigan, where he had trailed badly. Romney said this week that if he can win Michigan, where he was born and raised, he could capture the presidency. Michigan has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since backing Republican George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Still, in a measure of Romney's own vulnerabilities, even some voters who say they support Romney believe the president will still be re-elected. Of all adults polled, 56 percent believe Obama will win a second term.