U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to supporters on September 17;2012 in Columbus;Ohio. President Obama spent the day in Ohio campaigning in Cincinnati and Columbus.
Photo Credit: Matt Sullivan , Getty Images
WASHINGTON - A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney still in a virtual tie with the Nov. 6 election just weeks away, but voters expressed more optimism about the struggling economy.
The poll was taken before the furor over remarks Romney made in a secretly taped video nearly four months ago, in which he told a group of wealthy donors that nearly half of Americans believe they are victims and entitled to government support. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," Romney said in the video, posted online Monday by the left-leaning Mother Jones magazine.
The new poll, released Wednesday, showed 47 per cent of likely voters backed Obama, while 46 per cent sided with Romney. Among all adults, Obama is favoured by 52 per cent of Americans, with 37 per cent for Romney.
In an interview Tuesday on the conservative-leaning Fox News, Romney said he didn't intend to write off any part of a deeply divided electorate, including seniors or members of the military, who are among those who often pay no taxes.
"I'm not going to get" votes from Americans who believe government's job is to redistribute wealth, Romney said. He said he wants to be president so he can help Americans find work and earn enough so they become income taxpayers.
Romney has neither disavowed nor apologized for his remarks. Instead, he has cast his comments as evidence of a fundamental difference with Obama over the economy, adding the U.S. government should not "take from some to give to the others."
The U.S. income tax is designed to be progressive, so those who earn the most theoretically pay the most. Through programs as diverse as health care and food stamps, the government collects tax revenue and pays it out in the form of benefits for those who qualify.
Obama addressed the Romney claims in an appearance on the David Letterman talk show that aired late Tuesday.
"One thing I've learned as president is that you represent the entire country," he said. As for Romney's statement about the 47 per cent, he said, "There are not a lot of people out there who think they are victims" or simply entitled.
At the same time, his campaign released a new ad saying that if Romney wins the White House, he might seek the elimination of a series of tax breaks used by millions of middle-class Americans. "Mitt Romney, he's so focused on big business and tax cuts for the wealthy, it seems like his answers to middle-class America are just tough luck," says a woman in the commercial.
And an independent group supporting Obama ran the first television advertisement using the leaked video. The ad from Priorities USA Action shows clips of Romney saying 47 per cent of Americans "believe that they are victims" and ends with a narrator saying Romney will never convince middle-class voters he's on their side.
For his part, Romney referred Tuesday to videotaped comments Obama made in 1998 as evidence he favoured government redistribution of wealth. As an Illinois state senator at the time, Obama said he believes in it "at least to a certain level to make sure everybody's got a shot."
The new Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Sept. 13-17. While Obama has seen a general upswing in voter opinion, the poll shows 61 per cent of likely voters describe the economy as poor. Just over half think the economic outlook has gotten worse over the last four years. And 57 per cent think unemployment will get worse or stay the same over the next four years.
But a growing number of voters thinks that things will get better in the coming year - 48 per cent, up from 41 per cent before the Democratic and Republican national conventions a few weeks ago.
The sluggish economy and lingering high unemployment are by far the overriding issues of the election, and Romney's case for the presidency is based on his claim that his success as a businessman proves he will succeed in creating jobs in a nation where unemployment is 8.1 per cent.
Obama and the Democrats have tried to counter by depicting Romney as a multimillionaire who has some of his wealth invested in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere overseas and is out of touch with the needs of middle class Americans.
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Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn, Nancy Benac and Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
© The Canadian Press, 2012
19 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.globalnews.ca/Canada/poll+obama+job+approval+rising+race+still+tight/6442717969/story.html
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