Just when things were looking bleak for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, along came the debates to throw him a lifeline. Romney convincingly beat a listless-looking Barack Obama last Wednesday, and now the polls are beginning to reflect Romney’s victory.

According to a Pew Poll done from October 4-7, Romney convincingly won the debate among voters polled by a 3-1 margin. He also received a boost in his likeability measures and on his ability to handle most political issues. Most importantly, though, he pulled into a statistical tie among registered voters and into the lead among likely voters on who they would vote for.

Among registered voters, 46% support Romney, with the same percentage supporting Obama. Among likely voters, Romney leads 49% to 45%. This is a substantial bump from Pew’s previous polls on September 12-16, where Romney trailed 51-42% among registered voters and 51-43% among likely voters.

Other interesting takeaways from the survey are that Romney is now seen more favorably than Obama (50% Romney, 49% Obama), the two candidates are tied for support among women voters where Obama once led by 18%, and GOP enthusiasm and support has grown markedly from September to October.

For more information on this poll, check out the Pew Research Center’s press release on the polling results.

— Benjamin Nanamaker, InvestorPolitics Editor

The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.

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