Make or Break Debate: Obama’s Support Among Women Now Collapsing

Obama’s biggest task tonight in the second presidential debate will be to woo back ‘waitress moms’ so crucial to his re-election, after a poll showed Mitt Romney has stole their votes in the first showdown and they are now neck and neck among women voters.

According to a Gallup/USA Today poll of 12 swing states, Romney leads Obama by 12 points among men. But it is his surge among women voters to within one point of Obama that has given him a four-point overall lead that sets him on course to win the White House on November 6th.

The poll, released on the eve of the second presidential debate in Hampstead, New York, marks an apparent end to months of double-digit Obama leads over Romney among women and has plunged Democrats into panic mode.

Unlike the first debate, the second meeting will be in a ‘town hall’ format in which undecided ordinary voters – probably about a dozen – will pose questions. At least half of them are likely to be women. In addition, the debate will be moderated by a woman – CNN’s Candy Crowley.

Democrats traditionally enjoy a marked advantage among women. Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election was said to have been based on winning over middle class, aspirational so-called ‘soccer moms’. But Obama’s popularity among females has plummeted after Romney’s commanding debate performance in Denver nearly two weeks ago.

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