Romney jumps to narrow lead in WaPo-ABC poll

Mitt Romney seized a narrow, single-point advantage in Tuesday's tracking poll by The Washington Post and ABC News, the first time the Republican presidential nominee has led in the survey since August.

The numbers are a reversal of Monday's, when the tracking poll showed the president with a 49 percent to 48 percent lead. Both results are within the poll's margin of error and primarily suggest an extremely tight race with just two weeks to go before Election Day.

Nevertheless, there were some encouraging signs for Romney in the poll. The Republican challenger led the president 50 percent to 45 percent when asked which candidate voters trust to do a better job handling the economy.

Romney has also drawn to equal enthusiasm among supporters, with 62 percent of voters favoring each candidate saying they were strongly enthusiastic to head to the polls. By comparison, Obama trounced his 2008 opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 65 percent to 38 percent in terms of voter enthusiasm four years ago; former President George W. Bush bested Sen. John Kerry 60 percent 50 percent in 2004.

Voters also split evenly at 49 percent when asked whether they approve of the way that Obama was handling his job as president. But Obama did post a significant advantage when voters were asked who better understood the economic problems people in the country were having, earning a 51 percent to 44 percent edge.

Notably, the poll was conducted entirely before Monday night's third and final presidential debate.

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