Crisis, what crisis? Gallup poll shows Mitt Romney CLOSING to just one point behind Barack Obama





Mitt Romney's presidential bid has been gleefully portrayed as doomed after a series of supposed stumbles that have delighted Democrats.

Voters, however, apparently view things rather differently.

Romney has closed to just one point behind Barack Obama - a drop of six percentage points in a week for the President, a ccording to the latest Gallup tracking poll released on Tuesday. Obama is now on 47 points and Romney 46.

Dead heat: The Gallup poll released today shows Romney has closed the gap on Obama in recent days to just one point

The survey was taken before the current furore over comments made by the Republican nominee in a fundraiser at Boca Raton, Florida in which he said that 47 per cent of Americans were dependent on the government and 'it's not my job to worry about these people'.

But the poll, and another by Rasmussen that puts Romney two points ahead, strongly indicate that Obama's Democratic convention 'bounce' has all but evaporated and the 2012 race is wide open.

Last week, Romney's comments about the Obama administration having 'apologised' to those who attacked the U.S. missions in Cairo and Benghazi were panned by the press and Democrats as crass and ill-judged given that four American officials had just been killed in Libya.

Close race: Obama, seen here jogging at a campaign event on Monday, has seen his convention bounce in the polls evaporate

With unemployment still at over eight per cent, however, and the August jobs report showing that just 96,000 jobs were added while 368,000 stopped looking for work, the economy remains the number one issue and on that Romney holds some significant advantages.

Romney remains behind by 2.9 per cent in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) national average and trails in the swing states of Florida by 1.4 per cent, Virginia by 2.8 per cent and Ohio by 4.2 per cent in the RCP averages.