Swing State Polls in Michigan, Wisconsin Show Obama Gaining Ground Against Romney

While the race in the swing state of Wisconsin between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney becoming very narrow, polls in another critical swing state, Michigan, are indicating that the Wolverine State may be leaning for the president.

As of Thursday on Real Clear Politics, Obama is shown to have an averaged 2.3 point lead in the state over Romney, 49.3 percent to 47.0 percent.

The latest Thursday survey from Rasmussen Reports shows Obama tied with Romney at 49 percent apiece. Other polls, however, show Obama in the lead in Wisconsin. A Mason Dixon poll shows Obama up by two points, 48 percent to 46 percent. An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of likely voters has the president ahead by six points, 51 percent to 45 percent, and a poll  conducted by Marquette University showed Obama holding a narrow one-point lead over Romney, 49 percent to 48 percent.

With 10 electoral votes to give, Wisconsin is among the key swing states that Romney-who trails in most Wisconsin polls despite the presence of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate-would have to win to keep his election dreams afloat, one analyst told the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week.

"If Romney doesn't win Ohio, he really has to win Wisconsin," said Henry Olsen of the American Enterprise Institute, as he reviewed what is described as a "narrow route to victory for Romney", which most likely must include victories in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.

On Friday morning, the Atlanta-based paper reported, the Romney campaign-which hasn't visited Wisconsin since August-announced Romney would be at a rally in Milwaukee on Monday. Subsequently, the Obama campaign later announced that the president would be in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

Meanwhile in Michigan, which is worth 16 electoral votes, the averages on Real Clear Politics as of Tuesday gives Obama a four-point lead on Romney, 48.8 percent to 44.8 percent. This includes an EPIC-MRA poll with Obama leading by six points after the second debate, 52 percent to 46 percent, a Rasmussen Reports poll showing Obama up by seven points and a LE&A/Denno Research poll with the president up 44 percent to 41 percent.

However, a new poll released Tuesday by Michigan polling firm Foster McCollum White Baydoun showed Obama and Romney tied at 47 percent apiece.

On Tuesday, Obama campaign personnel told CBS News that they were confident that Obama was leading nationally and in battleground states. To prove the point, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said that Romney was actually pulling out of Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The Romney campaign disputed that idea later that day.

"Michigan is anyone's to win," Romney spokesman Sean Fitzpatrick responded to CBSNews. "Recent polls have the candidates right around the margin of error and the Obama team is simply trying to distract voters from their ever shrinking electoral map. Governor and Mrs. Romney grew up in Michigan, and we will continue to aggressively campaign in their home state."

No Republican candidate has carried Michigan in a presidential race since former president George H.W. Bush in 1988, CBS reports.