OVERNIGHT CAMPAIGN: Poll position

By Emily Goodin - 10/18/12 05:34 PM ET

TOP STORY: Romney galloping along

Mitt Romney has a 7-point lead over President Obama among likely voters, according to Gallup’s latest daily tracking poll.

Romney takes 52 percent support to 45 percent for Obama, and also leads 48 percent to 47 among registered voters.

The survey is a rolling seven-day average through Oct. 17, so it includes one day of polling data since Tuesday night's debate in New York state.

A slew of swing-state polls, though, show many battleground states remain a toss-up.

A NewsMax/Zogby survey of Florida showed the president opening up a 3-point lead in the state, at 47-44 percent support.

Two polls of Ohio similarly show Obama with a slight edge. A survey from conservative polling outlet Rasmussen puts Obama up 1, at 49 percent support to Romney’s 48 among likely voters in the state. A SurveyUSA poll of registered Ohio voters gives the president a wider 3-point lead.

A Marquette University Law School poll of Wisconsin released Wednesday showed Obama leading 49-48 percent in the Midwestern battleground.

TOMORROW’S AGENDA TODAY: President Obama has a campaign stop in Virginia, and then heads to Camp David for debate prep.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan hold a campaign rally in Daytona Beach, Fla., at 8:30 p.m., where they will be joined by country music star John Rich.

Ryan will also hold a roundtable with local small-business owners as well as students and graduates of the University of South Florida Center for Entrepreneurship in Tampa, Fla., at 1:10 p.m.

Vice President Biden will also be campaigning in Florida.

Michelle Obama will be campaigning in Wisconsin with an event in Racine, at 1:00 p.m. and an event in Wausau at 4:15 p.m.

Jill Biden will be campaigning in Iowa.

Former President Bill Clinton will campaign for Obama in Green Bay, Wis.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) will be campaigning for Romney in New Hampshire. Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) will be campaigning for Romney in Virginia.

TWEET OF THE DAY: “Honestly, kinda nervous about tonight's debate. But I guess that's natural.” — Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Our president, he didn't point fingers," Michelle Obama said at a fundraiser in New York on Wednesday night. "He didn't place blame. Instead, he got to work.”

POLL POSITION:

President Obama has opened a 3-point lead in the crucial swing state of Florida, further evidence that the president may have halted or even reversed some of the momentum swinging in Mitt Romney's favor after his consensus win in the first presidential debate. The survey, by Newsmax and Zogby, gave the president a 47-44 percent lead in the Sunshine State.

AD WATCH:

The Obama campaign is out with a new ad highlighting Mitt Romney's 2007 comment that he would be "delighted" as president to sign a bill banning all abortions if it was supported by most of the country.

Conservative super-PAC American Crossroads in a new Web video accused President Obama of misleading the public during Tuesday night's presidential debate over the cause of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The Republican National Committee released a new Web video that accuses Obama of giving up hope for the economy, and encourages voters to trust Romney's plan for job growth.

Michelle Obama reached out to female voters by touting her husband's commitment to equal pay and access to healthcare in a campaign Web video.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE:

The YG Action Fund, a super-PAC run by former staffers of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), is up with ads attacking Reps. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), and touting Republican Jason Plummer in his bid to win a southern Illinois seat held by retiring Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.). Plummer and McIntyre are in toss-up races, while Kissell has been left for dead by national Democratic groups.

CALIFORNIA: A Public Policy Polling survey mentioned in Wednesday’s edition reversed the numbers. The poll, commissioned by Democratic group Democracy for America puts Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R) neck and neck with Democrat Raul Ruiz. But Ruiz leads by 1 point, with 47 percent to her 46.

FLORIDA: House Majority PAC, a Democratic political action committee, is extending its attacks on Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) for his refusal to support embryonic stem cell research with a new ad that features a child with cerebral palsy.

ILLINOIS: Physician David Gill (D) leads former Republican House staffer Rodney Davis in their race by 41 to 39 percent, according to a new poll from the pro-Democrat House Majority PAC. The two are running for a newly redrawn seat left open by Rep. Tim Johnson's (R-Ill.) retirement.

IOWA: Former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack (D) features President Clinton endorsing her in her latest ad against Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). Clinton has become a favorite for Democrats in conservative areas the last few years, and the district leans Republican and towards King. He's also made a point to back those who supported his wife, and she and her husband, now-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (D), were Clinton backers during the Iowa primary.

MINNESOTA: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) called his Republican opponent a "lowlife scumbag" and a "gutter dweller" during a radio debate that devolved into an invective-filled fight over each of their divorces.

NEW YORK: Democrat Mark Murphy released a new ad, funded jointly by his campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, featuring a number of women discussing Rep. Michael Grimm's (R) record on women's issues and the investigations surrounding his campaign finances. "All these scandals at home?" one woman asks, and another says Grimm is "voting against us in Washington," before the ad closes with a third woman asserting "We know enough about Michael Grimm."

RHODE ISLAND: The DCCC released a new ad featuring an Iraq war veteran questioning Rep. Jim Renacci's (R-Ohio) commitment to veterans, noting he voted against increasing combat pay bonuses and for tax breaks for the wealthy, but that he also had complications with his own taxes — Renacci had to pay more than $1 million in back-taxes after failing to report some of his income. The veteran calls his record "an atrocity."

SENATE SHOWDOWN:

ARIZONA: The National Republican Senatorial Committee is launching a new ad that targets Democratic candidate Richard Carmona on his support for earmarks.

CONNECTICUT: Rep. Chris Murphy (D) has a 6-point lead on Republican Linda McMahon in a poll from the Hartford Courant, with 44 percent support to McMahon's 38. Seventeen percent of voters are still undecided. A leaked tax document showing McMahon’s wrestling entertainment company paid a $4.4 million tax settlement to the state of Connecticut has become an issue in race. The settlement was paid in April of this year but has come to light only now. McMahon released a new ad targeting Murphy for failing to release a jobs plan and instead voting to raise taxes and for budget cuts that could cost the state thousands of jobs.

HAWAII: Former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (R) is within 4 points of Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), according to an internal poll from her campaign, 47 to 43 percent.

MAINE: A pair of environmental groups combined to enter the Maine Senate race with a TV ad that supports former Gov. Angus King (I) over Republican opponent Charlie Summers. The six-figure ad buy by the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters touts King’s support of clean energy and record against air and water pollution.

MASSACHUSETTS: Sen. Scott Brown's (R) campaign released a new ad charging that "Warren sided with yet another big corporation against working people," citing her work for LTV Steel and on an asbestos lawsuit. The ad comes as Brown finds himself in a tough spot for charging that people defending Warren's work in the asbestos lawsuit in another ad were actors — three people in the ads were relatives of victims of asbestos-related illnesses, and they came out to decry Brown's comments. He later apologized.

MISSOURI: A Democratic super-PAC is sending a talking mailer to homes in Missouri that plays Rep. Todd Akin's (R-Mo.) controversial comments. American Bridge 21st Century, typically known for its opposition research, is putting $35,000 behind the mailer. The front of it reads, "Todd Akin would like a few words with you," and upon opening the card, Akin's "legitimate rape" comments — in which he said that if it's a "legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down" — plays.

NEVADA: Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) holds a comfortable lead over Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), according to two new polls of the state. Heller leads Berkley by 46 to 40 percent in a new poll conducted by SurveyUSA for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and by 50 to 43 percent in a new poll from the conservative Rasmussen Reports.

VIRGINIA: In a League of Conservation Voters poll, former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) leads former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) by five points in their Senate race. The group backs more Democrats. And Allen debuted an ad on Thursday him criticizing Kaine on defense cuts, energy and taxes.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) compared Mitt Romney to a used car salesmen. "Now, Joe Biden stands for everything that's fair and honest —he's a man of integrity. The man that's leading the Republican ticket for president of the United States is giving used car salesman a bad name," Reid said in his remarks introducing Vice President Biden at a campaign stop in Las Vegas.

The Obama campaign trotted out two of its biggest stars, former President Bill Clinton and legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen, at a rally in the hotly contested battleground state of Ohio. Clinton joked about being the “warm-up act” for Springsteen at the event in Parma, just outside of Cleveland. “I was born in the U.S.A. and unlike one of the candidates, I keep all my money here,” Clinton quipped, referencing a Springsteen album and the Obama campaign’s attacks against Mitt Romney’s foreign bank accounts.

Paul Ryan accused President Obama of failing to outline his vision for a second term during a town-hall meeting. Echoing the top of the GOP ticket, Ryan told a crowd in Ocala, Fla., that Obama is “not telling you what his second-term plan would be.” “He's not saying that he is offering anything new,” the Wisconsin lawmaker said. “All he is offering is four more years of the same.”

Ann Romney, in her first appearance on ABC's "The View,” sought to make amends with the five female hosts her husband has described as "sharp tongued" interviewers. But she also made news — telling the program's hosts Romney will "absolutely" be done with politics if he loses to Obama on Nov. 6, she said. “He will not run again, nor will I do anything like that again.”

Romney's campaign is hitting back at a new Tax Policy Center (TPC) critique of the GOP presidential nominee's latest tax reform proposal, arguing that the report failed to present a full analysis.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hopes to be “cheering” for the country’s first female president, but said it absolutely will not be her. She reconfirmed that she has no desire to remain in politics following her retirement this January in an interview with Marie Claire magazine. “I hope to be around when we finally elect a woman president,” she said. “That would be a great experience for me, to be up there cheering."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s most powerful business lobby, and labor groups like the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) took steps to mobilize their membership and get out the vote for their preferred candidates.