Poll: No early convention bounce for Obama campaign

By Justin Sink - 09/06/12 08:54 PM ET

President Obama isn't seeing a bounce in the polls after the first two nights of the Democratic National Convention, a promising sign for Republicans worried that this week's proceedings could erode the marginal national lead built by Mitt Romney following the GOP gathering in Tampa, Fla.

The Reuters-Ipsos daily tracking poll found Romney with a 45-44 percent lead over Obama, just 1 percent less than on Wednesday.

By contrast, Romney had seen a 6-point gain in his favor in the same poll on Thursday since the Republican convention the preceding weekend.

"We're not seeing a sort of glimmer, at this point, of a bump," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark told the wire service.

There are some serious caveats to the survey results. The tracking poll measures responses over a five-day period, meaning that responses from three of the poll's five days came before the Democratic convention began. And the poll was conducted online, which is generally seen as less reliable than telephone surveys.

Still, Democrats would like to have seen some gains beginning to show — especially off widely regarded prime-time speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and former President Clinton.

And while Democrats have faced some logistical challenges — kicking their convention off after a holiday weekend, and having Wednesday's proceedings compete with the NFL opening game — the Republican convention saw Hurricane Isaac steal front-page headlines.

On Wednesday morning, White House adviser David Plouffe said he didn't expect to see significant movement in the polls.

“Listen, this is a very tight race,” Plouffe told ABC News. “We’ve always believed that there’s very little elasticity in this election. I don’t think you should expect a big bounce. I think this is a race where we’ve got a small but important lead into battleground states.

"It’s going to be very, very close all the way out but I think the Republicans had an opportunity last week to lay out for the American people what they would do for the American class. Our sense is that they missed the mark, so we think we’re making a lot of progress this week but, again, you’re not going to see big bounces in this election. I think for the next 61 days it’s going to remain tight as a tick.”