Romney closes gap with Obama

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama

A cascade of new polls, uncertain economic data and fresh concern that Europe’s woes could cross the Atlantic, point to the Republican’s best chance of beating Obama in November — dismay about America’s slow economic recovery.

Though Obama is ahead by a nose despite the slowest recovery in decades, the president has little breathing room should the economy slow this year, as it did in 2010 and 2011.

Voters seem to like Obama more and believe he cares more about the middle classes, according to early polls ahead of the November 6 election.

So, should the rebound maintain a pace that has created around million jobs over five months, and if Obama navigates sudden crises at home and abroad, he looks well placed with his approval rating approaching 50 percent.

Yet polls suggest voters are not yet feeling the economic recovery, or Obama’s strategy to create jobs — giving Romney a fungible, yet genuine opening.

Major polls now show the Romney and Obama matchup largely within the margin of error.

In a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll this week, Obama led Romney by 49 percent to 43 percent. The New York Times/CBS survey had them pegged at 46 percent and a Quinnipiac University poll had the president up 46 to 42 percent.

“I think if the election were held today it could go either way,” said Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas.

Polls suggest Romney has started to unite his party after a divisive primary fight and reveal America is still a nation split down the political middle.

“This is going to be a very very close election We are not going to win it 54 to 46 (percent) — it is going to be very close,” said a senior White House official.

However Romney has plenty to worry about too.

Though he leads Obama among white voters, he trails badly among the vital voting blocs of women and Hispanics — by margins that guarantee a loss if he cannot close the gap.

And if unemployment ticks down from the current 8.2 percent, Obama’s advantages elsewhere may be decisive.

And Romney must also conquer conventional wisdom, which doubts his skills as a candidate and chances of victory — a feeling that the superior Obama campaign will surely exploit. The Daily Star