Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate has not led to a significant increase in support over the first four days of Gallup's polling, and the new Republican ticket remains neck-and-neck with President Obama.
In the four days leading up to Romney's announcement -- Aug. 7-10 -- Romney held a statistically insignificant, 46 percent to 45 percent lead over Obama. After Romney announced his choice of Ryan, his vote share ticked up 1 percentage point in the following four days, to 47 percent, but that increase is not statistically significant. Obama remained at 45 percent in both survey periods.
Gallup wrote that Romney fared slightly better over the final two days (Aug. 13-14) than over this past weekend (Aug. 11-12). While that suggests the Ryan rollout may have a delayed effect, it is not considered significant at this time.
The lack of a "bounce" for the Romney-Ryan ticket is consistent with Gallup's polling in 2008, when they found that neither Obama nor Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., received a significant bump in support after naming their respective running mates. Larger increases were measured in 1996, 2000, and 2004, with increases ranging from 3 to 9 points during that time period.
A USA Today/Gallup poll released on Monday found slightly lower marks for Ryan than for other recent running-mate selections.
Results for the four days following the Ryan selection -- Aug. 11-14 -- are based on 1,863 interviews with registered voters on the Gallup Daily tracking poll. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Gallup's tracking poll has found less support for Obama this cycle.
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