Obama's Lead Narrows Over Romney In Colorado After Second Presidential Debate: PPP

With less than three weeks before Election Day, President Barack Obama maintains a narrow 3-point lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Colorado, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey.

Of the 1,000 likely voters PPP surveyed after the second presidential debate (between Oct. 16th and 18th), 50 percent said they would vote for Obama if the election were held today, while 47 percent said they would vote for Romney.

Obama's numbers are down from a 51/45 lead he held in before the first presidential debate, PPP found in a similar September survey, and matches the smallest lead PPP found for Obama in Colorado this year.

Obama's lead is due in large part to his 51/42 advantage with independent voters, but he still pulls strong numbers with Hispanics (59/38), other non-white voters (59/29) and holds the trust advantage on both the economy (50/46) and Libya (50/44).

PPP also found when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is included in the questioning, Johnson gets 4 percent and Obama's lead increases to 5 points: 49/44.

But the PPP survey may not tell the whole story -- The Huffington Post Pollster estimate, currently tracking 41 polls, shows a much tighter race with Obama at 48 percent, Romney at 46.9 percent:

Pollster also has Colorado as a "tossup" state, still too close to call for either candidate and gives a 76 percent confidence rating to Obama's lead -- it's not 50/50, but it's also not necessarily a confidence-boosting number for the Obama campaign in the Centennial State, to be sure.

Nationally, Pollster shows an even tighter race, tracking 520 polls, Obama holds a razor-thin lead over Romney: 47.1 percent to 46.9 percent, respectively.