Michigan poll has Romney within 3 points of Obama

Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s strong performance in his first debate with President Barack Obama helped him trim Obama’s lead in Michigan to three percentage points, a poll released Monday to the Detroit Free Press shows.

Obama’s 10 percentage point lead (47 percent to 37 percent ) in a poll conducted last month by EPIC-MRA of Lansing dropped to 3 points (48 percent to 45 percent), according to the poll of 600 likely voters conducted by EPIC-MRA of Lansing. The gap between Romney and Obama was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Undecided voters shrank from the September survey’s 16 percent to just 7 percent .

EPIC’s September poll and others last month appeared to put Michigan out of reach for Romney, a native son.

“Romney has come back like gangbusters,” said EPIC-MRA President Bernie Porn. “Whether or not it’s long-lasting, only time will tell, but probably the remaining debates will be key.”

Conducted in the three days following the Wednesday debate, the poll showed more than five times as many Michiganders interviewed named Romney, not Obama, as the debate’s winner. Romney’s numbers improved most dramatically among independent and undecided voters. In the debate, Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney, used a rapid fire attack and kept a more deliberate Obama, the Democrat, on the defensive.

The results mirror other newly released national polls which show the race tightening both nationally and in critical swing states.

Of those polled in Michigan, 61 percent said they watched all or most of the debate, and 77 percent said they saw at least some of it.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20121008/ELECTIONS01/310080047/Michigan-poll-has-Romney-within-3-points-Obama?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

don't shoot me, please.