Gallup’s daily tracking poll of likely voters Tuesday put Romney up 52 percent to 45 percent. Beckel: 'Over' for Obama if poll is true

Liberal commentator Bob Beckel said Thursday on Fox News that “it is over” for President Barack Obama if a new poll that has the president trailing GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is accurate.

Gallup’s daily tracking poll of likely voters Tuesday put Romney up 52 percent to 45 percent, with the remainder undecided.


“If I were looking at the numbers and managing the presidential campaign, I would be upset, I’m not sure panic. But if those numbers are correct — it is over, it is over,” said Beckel, a co-host of Fox News’s “The Five.” “So I mean you’re not going to bring Romney back under 50 percent from 52 percent, not a challenger candidate. If that is correct. I don’t necessarily buy it’s correct.”

He added: “I do have admiration for Gallup. But you got to remember that it is outside the margin of error. He’s outside the margin of error, but it’s plus or minus 4 percent. So it may be 48; I don’t know the answer to that.”

Gallup’s Daily Tracking Poll takes a rolling seven-day average of responses — between Oct. 11 and Oct. 17, in this case. It is based on phone interviews with 2,700 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.