Polls: Obama and Romney neck and neck

Since the departure of ultraconservative candidate Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney's approval rating has risen slightly compared to last month's poll. According to a CBS poll released Wednesday, 541,000 Republican voters support Romney, compared to just 301,000 last month. This puts Barack Obama and Mitt Romney neck and neck; the two candidates each have about 461,000 Republican voters.

Republicans will formally nominate their candidate at the party's national convention in Tampa, Florida, at the end of August.

Obama's Perceptions Abroad

Will the American vote be influenced by foreign countries' perceptions of their president's performance? A Gallup poll published yesterday attempted to determine this. It indicated that Obama's approval rating averaged 431% among respondents in 116 countries.

The African continent has the highest positive rating for Obama's performance, with an average of 74% (a decrease, however, compared to 2010). In Egypt, the US president's performance garnered only 19% positive opinions.

In Europe, Barack Obama's approval ratings were highest in Kosovo; in Serbia, however, the approval rating was only 81.3%. In France, the poll found 42.3% of people in favor, a drop of 13 points in one year. In Asia, Obama's approval rating rose from 39.3% in 2010 to 41.3%.