A new CNN Poll shows a "significant" new lead of 6 points for President Obama who is now leading Romney by 52% to 46%.
According to a CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday, 52% of likely voters nationwide back the president, compared to 46% for Romney. Just before the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Obama was tied with Romney 48%-48%.
"The Democratic convention was fairly well received, particularly in comparison to the GOP meeting the previous week in Tampa," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
The convention energized–at least temporarily– the Democratic base, as more Democrats (59%) than Republicans (57%) seemed to be enthusiastic about voting. This marks a turnaround from last week, when the number of Republicans who said they were extremely or very enthusiastic about voting was six points higher than for Democrats.
And, we show improvement in favorability numbers while Romney's has declined.
This year's Democratic event wiped away some of Romney's gains on personal qualities. The Republican nominee's favorable rating increased to 53% after the GOP convention, but fell to 48% one week later after the Democratic event. Meanwhile, Obama rose to 57% in the last week, his highest mark since 2010.
51% think President Obama is also now seen with a more optimistic vision of our country's future compared to 41% who think Romney's vision is more optimistic.
Earlier today, a senior advisor of the Romney campaign suggested that President Obama's bounce was just a sugar high, and that both Democrats and big media wanted to depress Republicans.
If I were a Republican I would find today's news depressing, as it seems that their convention has actually set them back with a negative bounce.
1:36 PM PT: Another interesting finding of this poll is that President Obama is improving among men, young, and urban votes, while maintaining his leads among woman.
On CNN Hilary Rosen is noting that Romney is losing enthusiasm among Republican voters, perhaps, as they are finding it hard to imagine having a president who consistently lies, flip flops back and forth on positions daily, and refuses to provide any specifics on what he will do. Or, perhaps, Americans sense that Lyin Ryan is so totally unqualified to be President, that he makes Sarah Palin look "presidential" by comparison.
1:52 PM PT: CNN now has Scott Van Duzer woner of Big Apple Pizza on TV, and is running this wonderful video of the bear hug where Scott lifts our President off his feet.
Our President's wonderful sense of humor comes through and everyone in the pizza place is laughing. Can you imagine anyone even thinking of giving him a bear hug, or his wooden and stiff reaction, perhaps, even screams, as the Secret Service dragged off the hugger?
Duzer is a registered Republicans who voted for our President in 2008, and he is saying he loves President Obama's enthusiasm and will vote for him again in 2012.
Wolf Blitzer asked him the small business question, and Van Duzer says he is better off, and can take care of his own business.
This video is worth more than Mitt's whole $100 million war chest.
"What a great picture," says Jack Cafferty. I expect we going to get another 5% Van Duzer bounce.
Go Team Obama
2:04 PM PT: I 've been writing a satire piece called Mitt Romney and His Right Wing Ideology Are Not Dead, They Are Just Resting! I've pulled the Monty Python Parrot Sketch from it and put it below ItsSimpleSimon's comment harking back to the Monty Python "Bring Out Your Dead" skit.