In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.
The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney's support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group.
. . . In the poll, Romney leads among all men by a single point, but the president leads among women by 18. That reflects a greater disparity between the views of men and women than the 12-point gender gap in the 2008 election.
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina
says Romney's promise to "end Planned Parenthood" — the former
Massachusetts governor says he wants to eliminate federal funding for
the group — and his endorsement of an amendment that would allow
employers to refuse to cover contraception in health care plans have
created "severe problems" for him in the general election.
"Romney's
run to the right may be winning him Tea Party votes," Messina said in
an interview, but he says it's demonstrated that "American women can't
trust Romney to stand up for them."
