Mitt Romney won Denver debate with 52-point margin, the biggest in Gallup history

Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate in Denver by a whopping 52-point margin according to Gallup.

The result is the most resounding margin since the polling giant began tracking debates 20 years ago.

In results published today, three times more people thought Mitt Romney did a better job than Barack Obama in last week’s so-called Duel in Denver presidential debate, according to the polling giants.

The poll about the Wednesday night’s debate in Denver, watched by 67 million people, was conducted on Thursday and Friday. Of those who watched, 72% thought Mitt Romney did a better job compared to 20% for Barack Obama.

Even among Democrats, 49% thought Mitt Romney was the winner with only 39% of Barack Obama’s own party stating that he was victorious.

The previous largest margin was 42 points for Bill Clinton over President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 town hall debate in which Bush famously looked at his watch and Clinton proved masterful in expressing empathy for ordinary voters.

At the same time, Gallup detected a five-point national poll swing from Barack Obama to Mitt Romney, putting the two candidates on level pegging at 47 percentage points each over the three days after the debate and halting the movements towards Obama since the Democratic convention.

Meanwhile, the respected Pew Research Center reported the most dramatic shift in a national poll during the entire general election campaign, with Mitt Romney’s fortunes improving in almost every respect. The center reported also pulling even with Barack Obama on 46%.

His personal image has improved with favorable rating hitting 50% registered voters for the first time in a Pew survey and up five points since September. At the same, Barack Obama’s personal favorability has dropped six points to 49%.

Pew found that Mitt Romney made substantial gains over the past month among women, whites and those younger than 50. He even drew level among women, where Barack Obama has held a clear advantage for months and by 18 points a month ago.

The debate survey is a welcome turnaround for Mitt Romney from the Gallup poll taken after the Republican convention that found his speech was the worst received of all major party nominees stretching back to Bob Dole, the GOP candidate in 1996. Some 37% of people found Mitt Romney speech “Ok”, “poor” or “terrible”.

Pew registered a 46% margin of victory in the debate for Mitt Romney with 66% of registered voters saying he did the better job in Denver and 20% saying Obama prevailed.

Immediately after the debate, a snap CNN poll found that 67% believed Mitt Romney won compared to 25% who said Barack Obama was the victory. Another instant poll by CBS gave Mitt Romney 46%, 22% for Barack Obama and 32% a tie.