A new USA Today/Gallup poll released on Monday shows Mitt Romney with a five-point lead among likely voters across 12 critical swing states. The poll ascribes Romney's surge to growing support from women, who are now evenly split between the GOP candidate and Obama. And if the trend holds, things could get even worse for the incumbent. "As a group, women tend to start paying attention to election contests later," says Susan Page at USA Today, "and remain more open to persuasion by the candidates and their ads."
However, the Obama campaign pushed back heavily against the poll, calling it an "extreme outlier." "Gallup's data is once again far out of line with other public pollsters," writes Obama pollster Joel Benenson. "In 14 state polls conducted across 8 swing states since October 4, President Obama leads among women in every single one."
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