Presidential candidates traditionally experience a jump in polling points after their National Conventions.

True to form, President Barack Obama’s campaign gained an immediate three-point increase after the Democratic National Convention, according to a Gallup poll from September 11. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney received none after the Republican equivalent, according to a Gallup poll released Sept. 4.

Political science professor Christopher Kenny said that under normal circumstances, Obama should be losing this election.

“There are lots of potential problems for an incumbent president,” Kenny said, citing the economy, Afghanistan and the recent foreign policy problems in Libya.

Kenny said even in a political science class his mother took in the 1950s, the professor taught that Americans vote based on personality.