With President Obama’s ratings on the economy still weak and our economic recovery fragile at best months, it is no wonder that the latest New York Times/CBS News poll conducted May 11-13 shows Romney holding a narrow, three-point advantage over President Obama (46%-43%) among registered voters.
Sixty-two percent of registered voters cited the economy as the most important issue in the presidential election – followed by the budget deficit (11%), health care (9%), same-sex marriage (7%), foreign policy (4%), and immigration (2%).
And two-thirds of voters (67 percent) said they still believe the economy is in bad shape.
The fact that three and a half years into his presidency, the president hasn’t won over a majority of the electorate when it comes to his performance on the economy has clearly hurt the president’s standing among key voting blocs.
Simply because the economic recovery is anemic, growth is 2.5% or less, unemployment remains unacceptably high at 8.3% and while the President rails against Republican social Darwinism – particularly the Ryan budget plan – it is clear that he is not offering any answers of his own.
The CBS News/New York Times poll found that Romney now leads the president among independents (43 percent to Mr. Obama’s 36 percent), and the former Massachusetts Governor took the lead among women voters, 46%-44%.
More than three years into his Presidency, it is clear that the hope and change Obama promised during the 2008 election has not been realized. In fact, things have gotten worse.
As more and more time passes since his historic election, voters increasingly blame President Obama rather than George W. Bush for the economic problems we are facing — which is why this election is likely to devolve into one of the ugliest in recent American history.
The Obama campaign responded by denouncing the poll as biased, and is now collaborating with pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action with multi-million dollar television and online ad campaigns attacking Romney’s record on the economy.
On Monday, President Barack Obama‘s reelection campaign launched a new website – www.romneyeconomics.com – featuring a six minute attack ad. The ad features steelworker Pat Wells, who lost his job at the plant. ‘With Romney and Bain Capital, the objective was to make money,’ Wells says. ‘Whether the companies they came in and worked with made money or not was irrelevant. Bain Capital always made money.’”
On Tuesday, Priorities USA Action released a 30-second ad on the closure of the Kansas City plant of GST Steel, which Bain Capital acquired in 1993. And on Wednesday, the Obama campaign will be airing a 2 minute version of the ad during the evening news in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
By attacking the wealthy and the powerful – individual Romney donors, the oil companies, the Supreme Court, the banks and the one percent – President Obama has made it clear that 2012 is going to be a divisive election campaign rather than one where he tries to offer more inclusive solutions to the nation’s problems.
