Obama gets cash boost as polls cheer Romney

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has stashed US$181 million (S$222.5 million) into his re-election account to cheer supporters after his limp debate performance, but several polls show movement towards Republican Mitt Romney.

Mr Obama's camp on Saturday announced its biggest monthly haul of the 2012 race with its September fundraising figures, a day after supporters got another fillip with news that the US unemployment rate dipped below 8 per cent.

Yet there were signs that Mr Romney's confident debate joust with the president last Wednesday was softening support for Mr Obama in the battlegound states that will decide who will control the White House for the next four years.

In Gallup's daily poll, Mr Romney cut the president's lead from 49 to 46 per cent, and other national polls and state surveys showed movement to the Republican, who appeared before 6,000 people in Florida on Saturday.