BIG MO:

Mitt Romney has taken a narrow national lead, tightened the gender gap and expanded his edge over President Barack Obama on who would best grow the economy.

A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Tracking Poll of 1,000 likely voters -- taken from Sunday through Thursday of last week -- shows Romney ahead of Obama by 2 percentage points, 49 percent to 47 percent. That represents a 3-point swing in the GOP nominee's direction from a week ago but is still within the margin of error.

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