UPI Poll: Obama cuts into Romney lead

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has a 2 percentage point lead over President Barack Obama in UPI Poll data released Saturday.

The data were updated Saturday by C-Voter after telephone contacts with 1,254 adults in the United States who said they would likely vote in the Nov. 6 election. The interviews were conducted Oct. 12-18.

Prior to a town hall-style debate Tuesday rolling data indicated Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, had a 49-45 percentage point lead over Obama. However, updated figures indicate that, as of Saturday, Romney was ahead 48-46, well within the poll's margin of error of 4.5 percent points.

Obama and Romney meet in their final debate Monday in Boca Raton, Fla., with foreign policy scheduled to be the main issue.

In addition to the head-to-head poll improvement for Obama versus Romney, the president also saw a swing up in his job-approval rating. Rolling data indicate that from Oct. 11-18, 49 percent of respondents said they approved of Obama's job performance while 47 percent said they didn't. Previous figures were 47.9 percent approval and 48 percent disapproval.

While the economy was overall seen as lacking, there was a positive trend indicated for Obama on the question of "How would you rate the condition of the national economy these days?"

The percentage of respondents saying the economy was "Very Good" or Fairly Good" (total 33.0 percent) compared to those who said it was "Fairly Bad" or "Very Bad" (total 66.1 percent) was 2.2 percentage points closer than a week ago.