Mitt Romney Leads Obama In First Gallup National Tracking Poll

Mitt Romney leads President Obama in the first Gallup national daily tracking poll.

Romney took 47 percent support from surveyed registered voters, while Obama took 45 in a poll conducted between April 11 and April 15. Romney’s edge, though, is within the poll’s three-point margin of error.

Independents tipped the scale in favor of Romney, going for the former Massachusetts governor 45 percent to 39.

The Gallup poll backs up a Rasmussen poll from last week that at the time looked like an outlier. The Rasmussen poll showed Obama and Romney tied at 45 percent, but was the first to show such a tight national race after a number of polls in March showed the president stretching his lead to double digits.

According to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, Obama leads Romney by 3 percent nationally, although the average doesn’t take into account the latest Gallup numbers.

The Gallup poll began its tracking on the same day that Rick Santorum exited the GOP presidential race, essentially signaling the beginning of the general-election match-up between Romney and Obama.

The poll’s findings could be a sign that Republicans have taken to rallying around their presumptive nominee, for what most analysts believe will be a tight race that will be determined by a handful of critical battleground states.

{The Hill/Matzav.com Newscenter}