President Obama has a 4-point lead in Colorado, 47 percent to Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s 43 percent, in a new live-caller poll of Colorado. Eighty-one percent of likely voters watched the first presidential debate, held on Wednesday in Denver, and 68 percent of those polled said Romney won against only 19 percent who said Obama was victorious.
The numbers showed improvement in Romney’s personal rating, but he still faces a big challenge there — a majority of 51 percent still have an unfavorable few of him, versus 47 percent with a favorable one. The former governor has stuggled on his favorability rating in Colorado thorughout the campaign.
The University of Denver (UD) commissioned the survey by Selzer and Co., the Iowa pollster best known for its polling of that state’s first in the nation caucuses. From UD’s analysis:
The debate’s major effect was reinforcing existing views of likely voters rather than changing them.
Sixty-nine percent of debate watchers became more strongly committed to their candidate, while only 7 percent became less strongly committed to their candidate. Five percent of debate watchers reported changing their minds.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents said jobs and the economy were the most important issues in the election—and by a margin of 50-45, they said Gov. Romney would do a better job.
The overall PollTracker Average of the presidential race shows Romney with a tiny 0.1 percent advantage.
