US News

Romney opens up 6-point lead over Obama as campaigns hunker down in swing states

Mitt Romney opened up his biggest lead yet in a national Gallup survey, with the latest results showing the Republican nominee up 6 points over President Obama — with less than three weeks and just one debate left on the calendar before Election Day.

The Gallup survey, which is based on a seven-day rolling average, showed Romney leading 51-45 percent. At the start of October, he was tied with Obama at 48 percent each.

The poll measures likely voters, with the latest results spanning interviews from Oct. 10-16. The poll would not yet have factored in voters’ views after the second presidential debate, which was held Tuesday.

But the poll shows Romney’s numbers continuing to rise on the heels of the first debate, a trend that was apparently not blunted by Vice President Biden’s aggressive debate performance one week ago.

Though presidential elections are decided in the battlegrounds, the new national numbers surely raise warning signs for the Obama team. Historical polling results show that the candidate who’s up three weeks before Election Day has typically gone on to win — though past polls were conducted of registered voters, not likely voters, which is now considered more reliable. The only candidate in modern times who came from behind three weeks before the election to win was Ronald Reagan in 1980.

To read more, go to Fox News.