Heading into the Republican convention, new polls show President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney running even - continuing a summerlong trend where neither candidate has been able to establish or maintain a clear lead in many national surveys.
In the ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted Wednesday through Saturday, 47 percent of registered voters support Mr. Romney and 46 percent favor Mr. Obama, a split well within the poll's margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. A CNN/ORC poll conducted last week showed Mr. Obama with 49 percent to Mr. Romney's 47 percent among likely voters.
A Fox News poll conducted from Aug. 19 to Aug. 21 had the race at 45 percent for the Republican t eam of Mr. Romney and Paul D. Ryan, and 44 percent for Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Gallup's daily tracking poll, which shows the results based on seven-day rolling averages, hasn't shown a lead of more than four points for either candidate all summer (Mr. Obama was up by four points for a few periods in July), which is just at the margin of sampling error of plus or minus two percentage points on each candidate. The most recent results, from Aug. 19 to Aug. 25, showed each candidate with 46 percent support among registered voters.
An analysis of preconvention polling by Gallup showed that the leader in polls entering the conventions has won 12 of the last 15 elections. Going back to 1952, the candidate leading in the Gallup poll conducted just before the first convention has won in November, except for in 1988, 1992 and 2004.
So entering into two weeks of conventions with nearly equal support among the American public, both Mr. Obama an d Mr. Romney face the same opportunities and the challenges of using their party conventions to rally their base of support and engage the broader electorate.
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