Who Won the Third Presidential Debate? Gallup Says Obama Won Third Debate, But Romney Wins Overall

The presidential debates between President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney were certainly a game changer - with polls tightening among the two candidates in the final stretch of the campaign season.

According to the latest poll from Gallup, Americans overwhelmingly thought Obama did a better job than Romney, 56 percent to 33 percent.

According to Gallup, 69 percent of Americans involved in its polling watched the debate.

However, according to preliminary findings, the third presidential debate was watched by 59.2 million people and was the least watched of the the three debates.

Gallup said Democrats thought Obama did the better job in the third debate, and expectedly, Republicans say Romney did better.

Gallup's Frank Newport said Obama scores higher overall for two reasons.

"First, 16 percent of Republicans say Obama did the better job, compared with only 4 percent of Democrats who say Romney did the better job," he said. "Second, independents give Obama a 56 percent to 27 percent edge over Romney. Democrats are the most certain in their choice, with only 2% not indicating a preference. Republicans and independents are significantly more likely to say both candidates did equally well, or to say neither candidate won, or to simply not be able to respond."

Newport said based on polling, Romney won the debates overall, 46 percent to Obama's 44 percent.

"Thus, it appears that overall, in their summation of the debate "season" in this year's campaign, Americans may be giving as much weight to Romney's strong performance in the first debate as to their perceptions that Obama won two of the three debates," he said.

According to a CBS News instant poll, 53 percent of voters said Obama won the debate, 23 percent thought Romney won and 24 percent thought that the debate was a tie.

The poll also showed that 49 percent of voters trust Romney to handle an international crisis while 71 percent trust the president.

A CNN/ORC poll showed 48 percent believed Obama won, while 40 percent believed Romney did. The poll revealed that nearly 60 percent of debate-watchers thought that Obama did a better job than they had expected and 44 percent who said that the GOP governor had a better than expected debate performance.