It won't be very large and with the Democratic convention next week, it might not last long, But Mitt Romney is making the most of his shortened convention by pulling even with President Obama in a very Democratic poll -- the Reuters-Ipsos poll.

Republican Mitt Romney pulled even with President Barack Obama in a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday, getting a boost from his party's nominating convention in Tampa this week.

In a four-day rolling poll, Romney and Obama were deadlocked among likely voters at 43 percent each. That was an improvement for Romney from Obama's two-point lead on Tuesday and four-point lead on Monday.

"There is movement toward Romney, which is traditional for a convention," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "It's small and the change is incremental, but it's been moving the last couple of days."

Nominating conventions typically provide at least a small bump in polls for presidential candidates, who use the gatherings as platforms to sell their message directly to voters.

On the first full day of the storm-delayed convention on Tuesday, Republican speakers lashed out at Obama's record and portrayed Romney as a leader who could make tough choices and rescue the ailing economy.

Romney appeared on stage briefly to join his wife, Ann, after she gave a speech presenting a softer side of the presidential contender for the thousands of convention delegates in Tampa and for a national television audience.

The poll found 74 percent of registered voters had heard at least something about the convention. Among Republicans, that number went up to 84 percent, while 70 percent of independents have heard something about the convention.

Of those who have heard about the convention, a slight majority, 51 percent, gave it an average rating, while 28 percent thought it was going well and 21 percent thought it was going poorly.

"The convention is being seen and heard," Clark said. "We can credibly say the slight change in the numbers can be attributed to the convention."

Prior to the start of convention, there was worry in the Romney camp that the hurricane would destroy momentum and the shortened convention wouldn't be seen by as many people as conventions past.

But that worry appears to have gone out the window. The Ann Romney-Chris Christie speeches on Tuesday night drew a healthy 22 million viewers and both were generally well recieved (although pundits didn't like Christie's speech much).

Mitt Romney's speech tonight is expected to draw 40 million viewers. If he does reasonably well, he might end up getting a nice 6-8 point bounce in the polls and put pressure on the Democrats to match or do better.