MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Polls show Obama performed better than Romney, but on the economy it was not that clear

The two candidates held a lively debate, and polls indicate Obama recovered lost ground in the first exchange

US voters say that President Barack Obama performed better than Republican rival Mitt Romney by a substantial margin in their second debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

The poll showed 48% of registered voters gave the victory to Obama, while 33% say Romney prevailed in the Tuesday debate, the online poll found.

The poll reflects the broad consensus of debate observers who said Obama's forceful approach gave him the upper hand over Romney, who was widely seen as the victor in their first match-up on Oct. 3.

“Clearly the debate was a bit of a turnaround for Obama. He put in a much stronger performance than he did in the first debate and it's showing in the numbers” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.

The accuracy of Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the survey of 655 online voters, conducted shortly after the debate, has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Other polls also coincided that Obama did not repeat the mistakes he made in his first debate, aggressively hitting back at Romney on tax plans, outsourcing and his controversial remark that 47% of Americans did not pay income taxes.

According to a CNN/ORC poll conducted right after the debate, 46% of voters declared Obama the winner while 39% said Romney fared better.

A CBS News instant poll said Obama edged Romney for a win in the second presidential debate. About 37% of voters polled said the president won, 30% awarded the victory to Romney while 33% said Obama and Romney were tied.

During the debate, 55% of voters said Obama gave direct answers, while 49% said the same about Romney.

However on the crucial issue of who did a better job of handling the economy, 34% said the president would better handle the economy, with 65% saying Romney would. The CBS survey polled 525 voters who are undecided or who may still change their minds.

An online poll by Google Consumer Surveys gave Obama a 48% lead over Romney's 31%.

“I hope you saw exactly what's at stake in this election. This race is neck and neck. What happens in the next three weeks will determine which side wins,” Obama told his supporters in an email soon after he left New York after participating in the debate.