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One of the only advantages Mitt Romney has had over President Obama was being seen by voters as better able to handle the economy. Romney’s favorable numbers were never great and he trailed Obama on most issues, but being perceived as the candidate who could best deal with the number one concern of voters was significant. This once-important advantage for Romney is now completely gone.
Obama hasn’t just neutralized Romney’s previous advantage on the economy — according to new polling, Obama has actually taken the lead on the question of who would best handle the economy. From CNBC:
A national CNBC poll finds President Barack Obama holds a commanding lead over Mitt Romney on the key issue of who would be better for the economy over the next four years.
Obama gets that nod even though Americans, by overwhelming margins, believe the economy is worse now than it was four years ago whenObama’s term began.
Our latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey of 800 American adults across the nation shows Obama with a nine-point lead over Romney, 43 percent to 34 percent, on who would do a better job on the economy in the future.
Obama’s advantage on the economy isn’t just with national adults, which as a group tends to be more Democratic-leaning than the subset of Americans who actually vote. New state-based polling also shows Obama is perceived as better on the economy among voters in the top swing states.
A Washington Post poll found 49 percent of registered voters in Florida think Obama would do a better job with the economy while 45 percent pick Romney. In Ohio, Obama leads on the economy question by an even larger margin, 50 percent to 43 percent.
The latest swing state polling by PPP found that Obama has a small but real advantage on the economy. In Florida, 50 percent of likely voters trust Obama more on the issue of the economy while 46 percent trust Romney more. In Colorado Obama led on that same question 49 percent to 46 percent.
This is a truly devastating development for the Romney team. The main focus of the Romney campaign had been based around the premise that Obama failed on the economy and that America needs a seasoned businessman to come fix it. If Romney is no longer seen as the candidate best able to fix the economy, the main public justification for his campaign has been completely undermined.
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If you want to understand how Romney made money with the money of investors that Mr. Bain raised for Romney, watch Gordon Gekko in Wall Street and Pretty Woman (until Gere got kind to Ralph Bellamy).
It was not rocket science knowledge about the U.S. economy that made Romney rich. It was other people training him, other people’s money, and lack of soul.
blah blah blah blah… I thought this was a progressive blog? Instead of wasting our time with endless articles about how bad Mitt Romney’s campaign is, why don’t you do the progressive thing and report how Obama’s re-election represents the complete failure of “liberalism” in USA politics?
But you aren’t interested in examining your own hypocrisy… no, you’re just playing stenographer for the partisan pollsters who have never included a truly progressive candidate or idea in their bullshit endeavors to maintain a corrupt, craven status quo.
If you wrote a diary here, I would read it.
You get what you vote for.
Bingo!
Really? Over the years I have seen hundreds of diaries and articles very critical of the Big O. Since I know exactly where to find the ones I have written, I will use them as examples. Do you really require that authors write with some kind of word count concerning both candidates? Plus, these days it is mind boggling to witness the stuped coming out of Mitten’s campaign. It is required writing. And I don’t see any diaries that you have penned about the odious Obama.
http://my.firedoglake.com/marymccurnin/2011/09/08/i-will-lead/
http://my.firedoglake.com/marymccurnin/2011/07/31/my-work-here-is-done/
http://my.firedoglake.com/marymccurnin/page/4/
So a smart businessman who built his own business isn’t selling?
This is no surprise to me, especially living as I do in Ohio. Obama’s bailout of the auto industry saved hundreds of thousands of jobs here, and those people know it. The Obama campaign has pounded Romney incessantly on this issue, since Romney said he would have just let GM and Chrysler go bankrupt.
Never mind all of the flaws of the bailout, never mind that new and rehired workers only make half of what they did a few years ago, to people dependent on the auto industry, and that includes the auto parts business(which is HUGE here), Obama is clearly the lesser of two evils.
And a lot of them voted for Bush, if not McCain, in years past. Romney lost them.
Whoa there, hoss. Better read some of Jon’s other posts first. Just because one reports on polls showing Romney imploding does not mean one is an Obama supporter.
Yes? well, it don’t matter to me, i’m voting for Romney anyway,Romney is bad
in politics,don’t pay taxes,don’t create jobs,is a corporatist,he is a Gordon Gekko, hates poor people etc, you name it,still i’m voting Romney in november.But i only took a look at Obama and his corporatism , at democratic puppets senators etc, i’m not better off than 4 years ago.
Thank you, Jon.
One of these stories daily now?