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Obama leads rival by 4-5%
Projections of a close contest notwithstanding, US President Barack Obama has for now garnered a healthy post-convention bounce with three national polls reporting that he leads his Republican rival Mitt Romney by 4 to 5 per cent.
The boost for Obama appears to support the assessment by some political pundits that the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina was a bigger hit than the Republicans meet in Tampa, Florida the previous week. It remains to be seen if Obama is able to maintain the lead in the coming weeks.
For now, a Gallup tracking poll, released on Sunday, showed Obama with a five-point advantage over Romney among registered voters (49-44 per cent). This is said to be the largest margin for Obama in the Gallup polls since early July.
The speech by former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic convention has turned out to be a net plus for Obama. Clinton, according to Gallup, got a higher rating (56 per cent positive) than Obama’s own acceptance speech (43 per cent) and Romney’s 38 per cent.
In the second poll, a daily tracker conducted by Rasmussen Reports, he led Romney among likely voters 49 per cent to 45 per cent – the biggest lead since March 17. “Obama’s convention bounce is evident both in the head-to-head numbers with Romney and in his job approval ratings,” the poll noted.
In the third poll by Reuters/Ipsos, Obama led Romney 47 per cent to 43 per cent. Noting that Obama’s growing margin held despite an adverse jobs report on Friday, Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said: “It means (Democrats) are on good footing going into the rest of the election.”
For Romney, one positive takeaway in the Reuters poll was that his appeal was growing among registered independent voters: 35 per cent of them said they would vote for him, as against 31 per cent for Obama. The narrow sliver of independent voters is always crucial in American polls.
However, on the question of protecting American jobs (if not generating them in sufficient numbers), the poll reported that 32 per cent of the independent voters counted upon Obama and only 27 per cent sided with Romney.
This finding is being seen against the backdrop of Obama’s frequent utterances against outsourcing of American jobs and his campaign’s aggressive ads against Romney, accusing him of an early outsourcer during his days as CEO of Bain Capital and then as Governor of Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Romney has said that he, if elected, would certainly repeal Obamacare, but would retain some parts of it such as coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and letting young adults stay on their parents’ plans.
“Even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people,” Romney said in an interview to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press” show, indicating that it was not such a change of stance as such.
“I’m not getting rid of all of health-care reform. Of course there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Romney said, adding: “I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan.”
South Carolina’s Indian American Governor Nikki Randhawa Haley, who is campaigning for Romney, attacked Obama for his “hypocrisy” on the question of bringing back American jobs and his commitment to products made at home.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for President Obama to claim he cares about products being ‘Made in USA’ when his administration bullies American companies trying to do just that,” Haley said in a statement.
Projections of a close contest notwithstanding, US President Barack Obama has for now garnered a healthy post-convention bounce with three national polls reporting that he leads his Republican rival Mitt Romney by 4 to 5 per cent.
The boost for Obama appears to support the assessment by some political pundits that the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina was a bigger hit than the Republicans meet in Tampa, Florida the previous week. It remains to be seen if Obama is able to maintain the lead in the coming weeks.
For now, a Gallup tracking poll, released on Sunday, showed Obama with a five-point advantage over Romney among registered voters (49-44 per cent). This is said to be the largest margin for Obama in the Gallup polls since early July.
The speech by former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic convention has turned out to be a net plus for Obama. Clinton, according to Gallup, got a higher rating (56 per cent positive) than Obama’s own acceptance speech (43 per cent) and Romney’s 38 per cent.
In the second poll, a daily tracker conducted by Rasmussen Reports, he led Romney among likely voters 49 per cent to 45 per cent – the biggest lead since March 17. “Obama’s convention bounce is evident both in the head-to-head numbers with Romney and in his job approval ratings,” the poll noted.
In the third poll by Reuters/Ipsos, Obama led Romney 47 per cent to 43 per cent. Noting that Obama’s growing margin held despite an adverse jobs report on Friday, Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said: “It means (Democrats) are on good footing going into the rest of the election.”
For Romney, one positive takeaway in the Reuters poll was that his appeal was growing among registered independent voters: 35 per cent of them said they would vote for him, as against 31 per cent for Obama. The narrow sliver of independent voters is always crucial in American polls.
However, on the question of protecting American jobs (if not generating them in sufficient numbers), the poll reported that 32 per cent of the independent voters counted upon Obama and only 27 per cent sided with Romney.
This finding is being seen against the backdrop of Obama’s frequent utterances against outsourcing of American jobs and his campaign’s aggressive ads against Romney, accusing him of an early outsourcer during his days as CEO of Bain Capital and then as Governor of Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Romney has said that he, if elected, would certainly repeal Obamacare, but would retain some parts of it such as coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and letting young adults stay on their parents’ plans.
“Even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people,” Romney said in an interview to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press” show, indicating that it was not such a change of stance as such.
“I’m not getting rid of all of health-care reform. Of course there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Romney said, adding: “I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan.”
South Carolina’s Indian American Governor Nikki Randhawa Haley, who is campaigning for Romney, attacked Obama for his “hypocrisy” on the question of bringing back American jobs and his commitment to products made at home.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for President Obama to claim he cares about products being ‘Made in USA’ when his administration bullies American companies trying to do just that,” Haley said in a statement.
