Mitt Romney's debate performance pushed him into a national lead over President Obama among likely voters, Pew Research Center reports in its latest poll numbers. Romney is leading Obama 49 percent to 45 percent in a poll taken over four days after the debate last week, even though in mid-September, Obama was leading Romney by 8 percentage points. There's a ton of good news for Romney in this poll:

• Two-thirds of registered voters think Romney won the debate, while only a fifth think Obama did.
• Romney's favorable rating hit 50 percent among registered voters for the first time.
• Voters think Romney is the candidate of ideas by 47 percent to 40 percent.
• Romney and Obama are tied as to who would be a strong leader—even though Obama had a 13-point lead on that question last month.
• Romney has an 8-point lead on jobs.

Voters still think Obama is the candidate who's more moderate, honest, and consistent.

Other pollsters have found Romney crushed Obama in the debate, too -- Gallup says Romney was seen as the victor by the biggest margin in its history. But Gallup hasn't yet measured such a big swing toward Romney in national polls, showing Obama ahead 50 percent to Romney's 45 percent.

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Elspeth Reeve