Obama maintains post-convention lead over Romney

President Barack Obama remained ahead of Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney in a poll released on Sunday, maintaining a boost in popularity that followed the Democratic National Convention.

Of the 1,419 likely voters polled online over the previous four days, 47 percent said they would vote for Obama and 43 percent for Romney if the Nov. 6 U.S. election were held today.

The president's margin over Romney in the daily rolling poll was unchanged from Saturday's numbers, turning up the heat on Republican strategists who were hoping for a more muted post-convention "bounce" for Obama in the wake of Friday's release of weak employment numbers.

"It means (Democrats) are on good footing going into the rest of the election," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said.

Obama's lead already was more sustained than a smaller and shorter-lived boost that Romney enjoyed after the Republican convention finished in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 30, Clark said. The Democratic convention ran through Thursday night in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"The task is now to stay on the message as we're still quite a ways away from the election," Clark said, reiterating her prediction that the gap in poll numbers between Obama and Romney is likely to narrow and stay close up to Nov. 6.

Senior advisers to Romney rejected the idea that they would panic after several polls showed the former Massachusetts governor losing in key swing states, saying such results reflected the recent Democratic convention and not the ongoing tight race.

"An incumbent president who is below 50 percent in the polls is in a very bad place," one senior Romney adviser said.

Another adviser said, "if we're at 47-45 (with Obama leading) going into the Thursday before the election, I'd be very comfortable we'd win."