Romney Targets Obama Voters - Wall Street Journal [dayinformations.blogspot.com]
New sick Dubstep Remix #1 from TonyEdits[HD]Hallo Leute und herzlich Willkommen zu meinem ersten Dubstep Remix. Über Bewertungen und Kommentare würde ich mich freuen. LG OuzoMalaka Bearbeitungszeit: 3 h
By COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON And PATRICK O'CONNOR
With new polls showing his campaign gaining momentum, Mitt Romney is venturing into what might be viewed as unfriendly territory, visiting counties in swing states that voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 and urging the president's supporters to switch sides.
The strategy is crucial to the Republican nominee: With the pool of undecided voters now small, Mr. Romney's best path to building a majority includes stripping Mr. Obama of some of his more tentative supporters.
"I'd like you to go out and find one person who voted for Barack Obama, or maybe two or three or four or five, and convince them to join our team," Mr. Romney told supporters in Denver recently. "I need you to go out and find people and say, 'You know what? It's not working.' "
Mitt Romney supporters listen to the Republican presidential nominee's speech at a campaign rally Tuesday in Van Meter, Iowa.
The new strategy comes as last week's presidential debate, in which Mr. Romney was widely seen as besting the president, has shaken up the candidates' standing in both national and battleground-state polls.
A CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday showed the president with a four-point edge among likely voters in Ohio, 51% to 47%, narrower than other recent polls. A Gallup tracking poll of likely voters showed Mr. Romney with a 49%-47% lead over Mr. Obama nationally.
Both candidates were in the battleground state of Ohio Tuesday stumping for support on the last day for eligible residents to register to vote.
Mr. Romney campaigned last weekend in three counties in Florida that Mr. Obama carried in 2008. On Monday, he stumped in Newport News, Va., which Obama won by nearly 30 percentage points. He planned to campaign Tuesday evening in Ohio's Summit County, which the president carried four years ago by 18 percentage points. All three are key swing states that are likely to play important roles in who wins in November.
In contrast, Mr. Romney had spent a larger share of his time in Republican-leaning areas in many prior weeks.
Both candidates also are now talking differently to voters: Mr. Obama, seen as lethargic in the debate, is delivering a more assertive message that focuses on promises he made and says he kept, such as ending the Iraq war and cutting taxes for the middle class. Mr. Romney is speaking more about personal experiences, such as his work as a Mormon church leader, at a time when some polls suggest the negative image that many voters hold of him is beginning to soften.
In New Hampshire, a poll for television station WMUR showed the race tightening in the state, but had Mr. Obama retaining a six-point lead among likely voters, 47% to 41%. A week earlier, Mr. Obama had held a 15-point lead.
The poll, conducted among likely voters by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, was taken over the course of last week and included four days before the Oct. 3 debate, WMUR said in a story posted online.
In its national survey showing Mr. Romney with a two-point lead among likely voters, Gallup said recent polling interviews suggested that the GOP nominee's "debate 'bounce' may be fading.'' The president held a three-point lead in the new survey among registered voters, conducted Oct. 2-8, about the same as before last week's debate, suggesting that Mr. Romney's strong debate performance "may not have a lasting impact," Gallup said.
An important goal for the Romney campaign is to peel off "soft" Obama voters who are inclined to vote for the president but who are open to learning more about his Republican challenger. "We have to get people who voted for Barack Obama to vote for Mitt Romney," said Rich Beeson, Mr. Romney's political director.
The campaign is targeting a list of counties that Mr. Obama won four years ago. It includes places such as Ohio's Cuyahoga County, where Mr. Romney performed well in the Republican primary and where his campaign expects him to pick up support from blue-collar Democrats and Jewish voters in the general election.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in September found that roughly one out of five Obama supporters said they would "probably vote for" the president, or were just "leaning toward" casting a ballot for him. The poll suggested that Mr. Romney had a way to make inroads with these voters.
Mitt Romney continues to enjoy a post-debate bounce, with not only nationwide polls showing a tightening race, but Romney taking advantage of President Obama losing support among women. Jerry Seib has details on the News Hub. (Photo: Getty Images)
For example, these so-called soft Obama supporters gave the president lower marks for his handling of the economy that than did other backers of Mr. Obama. Some 66% of the "soft'' Obama supporters approved of his stewardship of the economy, compared with 87% of Obama backers overall.
The problem for Mr. Romney: Roughly half of the more-tentative Obama voters viewed the GOP nominee in a negative light, compared with 44% of all those polled.
"I like the party; I just don't trust him," said Amy Fowler, a 42-year-old graphic designer from Lodi, Wis., who voted for Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) in 2008. "He can't connect with the average person."
Ms. Fowler, a self-described Democrat, voted for Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2010 and in this year's recall election. She said her reservations about Mr. Romney were almost entirely personal, describing him as "one of the guys I went to high school with who went to the golf club in the nice car and picked on'' other students.
As Mr. Romney tweaks his message to appeal to more centrist voters, he must contend with positions he took as he fought for the Republican nomination, such as his vows to defund Planned Parenthood and his plan to restructure Medicare. At one point this year, Mr. Romney told voters that he had been a "severely conservative" governor of Massachusetts.
"Out of the Republican candidates, I favored Mitt Romney, because he was the least conservative," said Scott Ryon, a 24-year-old from Springfield, Ohio. "But as the election progressed, he became more conservative." Mr. Ryon said he would probably back Mr. Obama.
Mr. Ryon is evidence of another challenge facing Mr. Romney: With Ohio's unemployment rate on a steady decline, Mr. Ryon, who works full time while attending college, rejects the GOP's efforts to paint the economy as sour. "Are you better off than you were four years ago? " he said. "At this point, I am."
The Romney campaign has been focusing on converting three major subgroups that sided with the president in 2008: blue-collar voters struggling in the current economy; suburban women concerned with deficit and slow economic growth; and young people, including recent college graduates with heavy debt loads. Republicans believe that these groups respond to Mr. Romney's focus on the economy and the deficit.
In addition to using traditional advertising and direct mail, the Romney campaign has tried other techniques for reaching these voters. In Wisconsin, it has staged "Moms for Mitt" phone-banking sessions on Monday nights, when mothers bring their kids to the local call center, and bowling events and spaghetti dinners for younger voters.
Write to Colleen McCain Nelson at
Related Romney Targets Obama Voters - Wall Street Journal ArticlesMaroon 5 Payphone New RemixRemix of Maroon 5's Payphone
0 comments:
Post a Comment