US President Barack Obama comprehensively won the second presidential debate in New York against his Republican rival Mitt Romney as the latter lost one point in his national lead, new poll numbers released by Gallup has said.

“Americans, who watched the second presidential debate, say Barack Obama did a better job than Mitt Romney, by 51 per cent to 38 per cent — a stark contrast to the first debate, of which most named Romney the winner,” Gallup said releasing the results of its latest opinion poll yesterday.

The Gallup numbers give Obama a larger margin than the two other snap polls on Tuesday after the debate — CNN and CBS each gave Obama a seven-point win.

In its seven-day rolling average, Gallup said Romney’s national lead has now dropped by one point since a day earlier. On Friday, Romney lead by 51 per cent against Obama’s 45 per cent.

RealClearPolitics, which keeps track of all the major national polls, had late last night reported that Obama has wiped off Romney’s lead and is now leading by 0.1 per cent if the average of all the major national polls is taken.

Meanwhile, several polls released yesterday indicated a tight race between the two leaders.

According to a CNN/ORC International poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, entirely after the second presidential debate, 49 per cent of likely voters in Florida say they support Romney, with 48 per cent backing Obama.

Romney’s one point margin is well within the survey’s sampling error, CNN said.

Romney leads by five points as per Rasmussen report and by three points according to Fox news survey.

The Fox News poll said that Romney leads in Ohio — an important battleground State — by three points.

In Iowa, Obama leads by eight points according to another poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal/NBC news poll.

In Wisconsin, Obama leads Romney by six points, according to NBC, but the led drops down two points according to Rasmussen tracking. In Oregon, Obama leads by seven points, according to Survey USA.

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