Women Favor Obama By 18 Points

President Obama still holds a small lead over Mitt Romney, and it's thanks entirely to his popularity with women and minorities, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. The poll has Obama ahead 49% to 45% overall, but his support among women is especially strong at 56% to 38%, and his support among blacks is nearly unanimous at 94% to 2%. Men and whites, by contrast, back Romney 52% to 42% and 53% to 42%, respectively.

In other polling news:

• Voters expect Obama will win the presidential debates by a margin of 54% to 28%.
• Obama's numbers among Latinos have hit an all-time high; a Latino Decisions tracking poll has him up 73% to 21%, the Hill reports.
• Romney's "47%" comment has hurt him badly, a Pew poll finds: 67% of voters are aware of the gaffe, and 55% of those people reacted negatively, compared to only 23% who approved of the comments.
• In individual state polling, CNN reports that Obama is crushing Romney in New Hampshire, while Romney has opened a slim lead in North Carolina.
• Moody's latest projection has Obama winning 303 electoral votes, and that's after accounting for what it calls the "grumpy voter effect" in states with a jobless rate above 8%.
• In down-ballot news, Claire McCaskill is up 9% over Todd Akin, the Kansas City Star reports, while Politico notes that Mia Love is ahead in her bid to be the first black female Republican in Congress.

(More poll numbers stories.)