In the all-important struggle for independent voters, President Obama is opening some daylight over his Republican rival.
That is the message of two national polls released on Thursday. The polls show a clear advantage for the president over Mitt Romney after several difficult weeks for Mr. Romney, which included harsh attack advertisements, unfavorable publicity from a foreign trip and pressure to reveal more of his tax returns.
In a Fox News poll conducted Sunday through Tuesday, independent voters favored Mr. Obama by 11 percentage points, an upswing from a 4-point advantage Mr. Obama held last month.
A CNN/ORC poll conducted Tuesday and Wednesday found 52 percent of independents held an unfavorable view of Mr. Romney, up from 40 percent who viewed him unfavorably in May shortly after he nailed down the Republican primary race.
The Obama campaign and outside supporters have h ammered Mr. Romney in battleground states in ads directed at his career at Bain Capital. Even though fact-checking columnists have questioned many of the details, the overriding message seems to be hitting home with a crucial slice of voters who can still be persuaded.
There was some positive news for Mr. Romney: 56 percent of those who would vote for him say they “strongly support†him, up from 47 percent in May, a sign of growing enthusiasm that will be important in driving turnout.
Both polls are national in scope; recent surveys of some battleground states, the heart of the election competition, have shown a narrower race.
If the election were held today, the Fox poll found, Mr. Obama would win 49 percent of the popular vote to Mr. Romney's 40 percent; last month, Fox's poll results showed Mr. Obama with 45 percent of support to Mr. Romney's 41 percent.
The Fox News poll interviewed 930 registered voters by landline and cellphone, with a margi n of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The CNN/ORC poll interviewed 1,010 adults by landline and cellphone, which includes 911 registered voters, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 4 percentage points for registered voters.
