Poll dancing -- 09.10.12

This election won't be a referendum on President Obama [The Hill, 9/10]: Sixty-one percent of likely voters say their vote is about a choice between two candidates, not a referendum on the president. More specifically, 67 percent of "centrist" voters made the distinction.

Obama got the convention bump that Mitt Romney didn't [Reuters/Gallup/Rasmussen, 9/9]: "[T]he president leads Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 5 percentage points in the Gallup Poll and by 4 points in the Reuters/Ipsos and Rasmussen polls. That reflected a swing of 4 to 7 points from their standing before the Democratic convention opened Tuesday."

Women divided on stay-at-home job, men aren't [Gallup, 9/7]: Fifty one percent of women said if given the choice between having a job outside the home or staying at home to "take care of the house and family," they'd choose an outside job. For men, 76 percent prefer a job outside the home.

Americans fear domestic terror over outside threat [Rasmussen, 9/10]: "64% of American Adults think a bigger threat now to the United States is a domestic attack. Just 18% believe an attack from terrorists outside the United States is a bigger threat..."

"Better off than four years ago?" No change [Pew, 9/6]: In 2007, fifty percent said they were "in excellent or good shape financially. In June of this year, 41% rated their personal finances as excellent or good. However, most of the decline in positive views occurred before Obama took office; there has been little change since then."

The horse race [RCP average, 9/10]: An average of national polls shows Obama at 48 percent, Romney at 46 percent.