Obama receives slightly better bump than Romney following party conventions: poll

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama received a slightly better bump in support than Republican challenger Mitt Romney following the two party conventions over the last two weeks, showed a latest Gallup on Monday.

Gallup conducted the latest poll on Sept. 7-8, immediately after the Sept. 4-6 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, the largest city of North Carolina.

Forty-three percent of Americans said last week's Democratic Convention makes them more likely to vote for Obama, and slightly better than the 40 percent reading for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney right in a previous poll after the Republican Convention in late August.

At the same time, a relatively high 38 percent of Americans said the Democratic convention made them less likely to vote for Obama, resulting in a net impact rating of 5 percent, which is on the low-end of Gallup's historical comparisons.

According to the poll, 43 percent of Americans also rated Obama 's nomination acceptance speech last Thursday night as "excellent" or "good," marginally better than the 38 percent who gave the same ratings to Mitt Romney's speech in Gallup's post-Republican Convention poll.

However, it is also a much less favorable reaction than Americans gave to Obama's 2008 acceptance speech in a large stadium in Denver, Colorado, where 58 percent rated his speech positively, including 35 percent who rated it as "excellent," a record high since 2000.

Obama's speech may have been overshadowed to some degree by the keynote address delivered by former U.S. President Bill Clinton last Wednesday night, when he formally nominated Obama. Gallup found 56 percent of Americans rating Clinton's speech positively, including 34 percent who said it was "excellent," similar to the high ratings of Obama's well-regarded 2008 speech.

The poll also showed that independents and Republicans were much more positive about Clinton's speech than Obama's, while Democrats were highly positive about both.

The Romney campaign released a memo Monday shrugging off the latest polling numbers which show Obama took a post-conventions lead.

"Don't get too worked up about the latest polling," Romney pollster Neil Newhouse wrote in the memo. "While some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly. The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race."

The candidates entered the two party conventions virtually tied in the pogoo\receive much of a bump following the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. But the daily tracking polls from Gallup on Monday showed Obama is currently holding a 5 percentage-point lead, respectively, after last week's Democratic National Convention. Enditem