AP: Obama 47% Romney 46%

The AP adds its name to national polls suggesting that Barack Obama's convention bounce has drifted away like a political dandelion.

Among likely voters, the president picks up 47% of respondents, while Mitt Romney wins 46%. As usual, though, the gap is much larger among registered voters and all adults.

To wit: among registered voters, Obama leads 50%-40%, and among "all adults", he leads 52%-37%. That's an even more dramatic gap than usual.

Couple key stats:

a. Obama's job approval among likely voters is solid at 52%/47%. If he can hold onto that, he's the big favorite to win this thing.

Likely voters disapprove of the president's job on the economy, 47%/52%.

b. Obama's favorable rating is 52%/45%, while Romney's is 48%/46%. That's not a route, just a confirmation that Obama is a bit more popular.

b. 89% of Obama supporters are certain they'll support him, while 89% of Romney's supporters say the same, so that cancels things out.

c. Likely voters are more likely to see the country going down the wrong track than the right one -- a favorable dynamic for anyone trying to knock an incumbent off his perch.

d. Here's a potentially very big thing. Obama's approval on gas prices is 35%/56% for -21%.

e. On Libya, Obama's approval rating sits at 47%/45%.

f. Likely voters slightly prefer Obama on the economy, 48%-47%. If you notice that number's nearly identical to overall preference.

My guess is that this is turning into a proxy for whom voters prefer for president and that there's less parsing among voters the more partisan this thing gets. So, actually, I don't think that's a bad number for Romney.

g. Romney edges Obama on the deficit, 47%-46%. That's much, much closer than usual, but once again, I think these questions are turning into proxies for preference the closer we get to the election.

h. Obama wins on healthcare, 50%-43%. It's always interesting to see Obama trump Romney on health care, even though ObamaCare remains unpopular.

i. Obama wins on empathy, 52%-41%. The gap is usually bigger, but that's still formidable, and as the two move closer, it once again points to my theory that most of these internals will even out if it's a close election.