Presidential Polls 2012: Obama, Romney in Dead Heat

With just 24 days until the presidential election, President Obama and GOP hopeful Mitt Romney are neck-and-neck according to Gallup's latest polling.

Among registered voters, Obama has a slight lead over Romney with 49 percent planning to vote for him and 46 percent for Romney.

Among people who are likely to vote, Romney leads Obama by two points. Forty-nine percent of likely voters said they will vote for Romney compared to 47 percent for Obama.

Forty-eight percent of Americans approve Obama's work in the White House and 46 percent disapprove.

According to Gallup's Frank Newport, Romney voters are somewhat more likely to respond that they will definitely vote, that they have thought a lot about the election, and that they are more familiar with where people in their local area vote.

"These attitudes indicate that Romney at this juncture will benefit from higher turnout on Election Day among his supporters than will Obama," he said. "These patterns could change closer to Election Day as more voters become engaged or if Republicans' or Democrats' enthusiasm for voting is altered by campaign events."

Gallup said Romney's debate performance gave him the momentum he needed to challenge Obama in the polls.

"Obama's slight 49 percent to 46 percent seven-day lead among registered voters is just about where it was in the seven days prior to the debate," Newport said. "This trend suggests that Romney's impressive debate performance - 72 percent of debate watchers said he did the better job -- may not have a lasting impact."

However, despite his lackluster debate performance, Obama has stood pretty steadily in the polls primarily because of the news from the Labor Department that unemployment fell below 8 percent for the first time since January 2009.

Obama and Romney will meet again on Tuesday, Oct. 16 for the second presidential debate. The debate will take on a town meeting format and will be held at Hofstra University. CNN's, Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley will moderate.