Polls: Obama up 3 in New Hampshire, 1 in Virginia

President Obama is leading in a pair of polls, released Wednesday, surveying the crucial battleground states of Virginia and New Hampshire.

The president holds a 48-45 percent lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, according to the survey from USAction and the Mellman Group. In Virginia, a similar poll gave the president a 46-to-45 percent lead over Romney.

Neither poll included surveys taken after Monday night's foreign-policy debate. Post-debate snap polls gave the contest to the president handily, although ratings were down significantly from the previous showdowns between the two candidates, and the Romney campaign maintained Tuesday that it thought its candidate's performance would help at the polls.

The president's lead in both surveys was buoyed by a significant lead among female voters.

“Driving the president’s lead on the ballot is a significant 13-point gender gap,” said pollster Celinda Lake in a statement. “Currently, a 52 percent majority of women is supporting Obama, while just 43 percent are voting for Romney. Among men, Romney is ahead by just 4 points, well within the survey’s margin of error: 47 percent to 43 percent.”

In selected cross-tabs provided from the New Hampshire survey, it also appeared that the president had successfully sold some of his policy proposals to the voters in the state.

In the survey, 81 percent of voters said they "favor creating jobs by investing in repair of roads, bridges and schools." Half of those surveyed said they favored ending tax credits for businesses that ship jobs overseas — a point the president hit repeatedly in the debates — and 57 percent said they opposed efforts to privatize Medicare.

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