Romney Trails Obama Again After RNC Popularity Bounce: Poll

Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney's popularity boost during the Republican National Convention looks to be over, according to the new Reuters/Ipsos poll. After leading President Barack Obama by two percentage points on Thursday Romney has slipped behind the incumbent, trailing 44 percent to 43 percent on Saturday. The Reuters/Ipsos poll measures voter attitudes inbetween the RNC and DNC conventiones by polling Americans over the previous four days.

Reuters reports that the polling numbers often increase in a candidate's favor following a convention and then stabilize after the convention. One pollster suggested President Obama's popularity numbers will have a similar fate when the Democratic National Convention wraps up in Charlotte, North Carolina later this week.

While the surges Gov. Romney saw earlier in the week in the "good person" and "tough enough for the job" receded to normal, he did continue to gain points in likability. On Saturday 32 percent of respondents found Romney likable, up from 31 percent. It was a modest gain but President Obama's likeability fell one point down to 47 percent.

It was a modest gain, but Romney has struggled with making himself more appealing to voters, who criticize him as out-of-touch with the real America. During a fundraising event early this summer Speaker of the House John Boehner admitted that - come November - Americans will be voting less for Romney and more for whether they approve of President Obama or not.

Also in the latest poll, 65 percent of Republican respondents said the RNC went well, while 31 percent deemed it average.

Romney also improved his standing in the "has the right values" category, sitting at 38 percent, a number that trailed Obama by only one percentage point. Early in the week Obama led Romney by a margin of nine, 43 percent to 34 percent.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was administered to 1,505 registered American voters online and has a margin of error of plus/minus 2.9 percentage points.

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