Why is Mitt Romney losing his edge on the economy?

In three new CBS News/New York Times surveys of battleground states, where ad spending is likely to be much heavier and voters more closely targeted than in solidly blue or red states, similar patterns appear to be emerging. In Colorado, Virginia, and Wisconsin, Mr. Obama has seen some degree of improvement on the question of who would do a better job on the economy, but Romney has not seen similar gains. In Colorado, he has essentially closed a 10-point gap in the space of a month: In August, Romney led him on the issue 51 percent to 41 percent; in September, he trailed Romney by just one point, with 47 percent to Romney's 48 percent. In Wisconsin, the president jumped from 43 percent in August to 49 percent in September, while Romney dropped from 49 percent in August to 46 percent in September. In Virginia, Romney held steady with 47 percent in both August and September. Mr. Obama, however, had an uptick of 4 points, from 45 percent to 49 percent. 

Likewise, a Wednesday poll out of Virginia shows Mr. Obama leading Romney 47 percent to 45 percent among registered voters on a question about which candidate would do a better job on the economy. And in new Fox News polls surveying three battleground states -- Florida, Ohio, and Virginia -- more likely voters say they trust the president than Romney to improve the economy. Whether or not these figures mark an improvement for Mr. Obama is unclear, however, since none of the polls provides previous data on the question. 

"Our battleground state polls show that there has been a shift in President Obama's favor on handling the economy in all three states, most notably in Colorado," said Sarah Dutton, CBS News' Director of Surveys.

Still, Dutton emphasized that it remains to be seen whether or not the recent polling numbers hold steady. "It's still too early to say whether this represents a long term trend for the president, or whether it's a temporary blip upward," she said. "We'll have to see what polls show in the next few weeks."

A short-term bounce?

While it's possible that voters are generally more optimistic about the state of the economy - which was true in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll - it's also conceivable that the president is benefiting from a temporary across-the-board bounce following the Democratic convention.

The Romney campaign argues that any uptick in the president's economic polling numbers is a result of a post-Charlotte boost among the base -- and that Mr. Obama has done nothing to change the way voters look at the economy overall.

"This is just Democrats coming back to Obama -- running up the score in places like Cali, NY/NJ, IL," a Romney campaign official told CBSNews.com in an email. "Besides that having no effect on the election (not swing states), there's been absolutely nothing that President Obama has done on the economy to change the dynamic. If anything, the continuous bad news -- food stamps record, unemployment numbers, debt -- that has trickled out since their convention will begin to blunt their enthusiasm."

"There was a small bounce, clearly," said Ayres, who said that naturally, an across-the-board bounce would lead to a "narrowing of the Romney advantage" on the economy. But he argues that there is still a significant opening for Romney on the issue.

"Mitt Romney's challenge is to consolidate the people who disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy. That's the strategy in a nutshell. Those people are prepared to try something else," he said. "He needs to paint a compelling alternative vision for how government would act differently in a way that would encourage rather than discourage job creation in the private sector" under a Romney presidency.

In the last several weeks, however, as Romney has been drawn into controversial debates over domestic and foreign policy issues, the candidate has had fewer opportunities to make his economic case on a large scale.

"There have been a lot of distractions," said Doug Holtz-Eakin, chief economic policy adviser to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "Conventions come and go, and international affairs have dominated recently."

But, he says, the economy is at "the core" of Romney's campaign. "He needs to get back to that."

"Any time you're running a national campaign, you're not fully in control of all the elements of the story that's developing around you," said Terry Holt, a Republican strategist who served on George W. Bush's campaign in 2000 and 2004. "The campaign has to stay focused. It has to very clearly and distinctly talk about Obama's record and make this an election where there is a clear choice between two distinct paths."

"If we're not talking about that we're not making any progress," he said.

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[bbglow]

As one Republican campaign veteran said, "I felt like when I was watching that (47%) video that it was the first time I'd ever seen the real Mitt Romney."

More and more of US feel that way ...

[tsigili]

Simple. The Democratic Party has taken over the media in America, setting up the overthrow of this government, through misinformation. They are totally subversive, and bent on taking over this country, to make it a socialist dictatorship!

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

Just like fox news?

[bbglow]

Hyperbole ... the same can be said the extreme right. WE can use name calling also. How would like the extreme right fascist dictatorship?

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Republicans have been redistributing the wealth of middle and working class Americans up to the wealthy for decades. In fact the republican propaganda pitting the 99 percent against each other over the crumbs the rich leave would make Joseph Gobbells nazi minister of propaganda proud. The question remains to be answered whether the 99 percent will continue to vote republicans into office to continue screwing our great nation.

[stevehamilton858]

I don't think so. Abe Lincoln, the founder of Mr. Romney's party is credited with saying, "you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time". The GOP is living on borrowed time, and if they don't change from their radical constituency, they will be an irrelevant "Rump Party" by 2013. If you know anything at all about equilibrium theory, (which you probably don't, but I do, having studied it for over twenty years) it is clear that a 99%/1% population will fall into disequilibrium. Just think about it, using a modicum of common sense, just as "nature hates a vacuum", serious imbalance will result in the loss of equilibrium. I'm reminded of the Grimm's fairy tale about the stupid person who killed the goose that laid golden eggs, so that he could get all of them first. GOOD MORNING GOP, to paraphrase Robin Williams.

[RollotheNorman]

Not losing, lost. People have finally figured out that he's no better job creator than that other great bizznessman/national savior, Ross Perot.

[Lindag20]

by Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals September 20, 2012 9:08 PM EDT
God will take care of him and horse-woman.
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OMG that's funny!!!

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

:)

By the way, Dapper Dan is over on "Romney ridicules Obama on 'change' remark"

[Lindag20]

Come on CBS. You're REALLY bad tonight.

[TimeToEvolve]

The idiot Robbed Me and his Republicon cronies are still puking out the same failed ideas of Reaganomics. The fake, fraudulent "free market" which is about as fixed as you can get. Deregulation that caused the Wall Street Bankster fraud in 2008. Privatization by inefficient, uncaring and greedy Wall Street corporations.

That is why the knucklehead Robbed Me Ryan is losing his edge. How stupid does Robbed Me Ryan think we are?

[washmohickory]

Will CBS put up the story that Obama doesn't 'precisely' know what the debt is - one of the 'real' and 'huge' national security risk according to his own administration? On top of that, he lies about the $1 trillion deficits he inherited. Where is that story?

http://www.inquisitr.com/337614/obama-to-letterman-i-dont-remember-how-much-the-national-debt-is-video/

http://crfb.org/blogs/hillary-clinton-says-national-debt-real-national-security-threat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS9jWDsX2Fk

[RollotheNorman]

Seeing as how the debt changes by the second (the debt clock is a bit of theatrical hooey, it's just time X rate of spending, not an actual count) no body could tell you except after a lot of record checking what the total debt was and a given time. My God, man, are your that blind?

[stevehamilton858]

As we say in AA, first things first. Knowing the precise number is a pedantic, second order issue. Trying to find jobs for vets is a first order problem. Getting prepared to get sucked into a war with Iran is another first order problem. As a 25 year veteran CFO, I know whereof I speak. when you're dealing in numbers as large as our national debt, knowing the exact number is not important; it's not like balancing your household budget, where you're spending $200 more a month than you'd like to, where it's important to know just how much of that $200 is truly decisionable.

[Lindag20]

by 1pheasant1 September 20, 2012 8:32 PM EDT
Each month over 700,000 Americans decided they didn't want their jobs anymore under President George W. Bush. The life of poverty was too attractive for them. According to Shallow, it wasn't Bush's fault.
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Of course people just LOVE losing their job, their homes and living in their car or in a shelter. Why not, it's SO much better than working.

[1pheasant1]

Dan is going to join them voluntarily.

[Lindag20]

That'll be the day.

[No-soup-for-you]

by Shallow_LibsAre_Cretins
I can harldy wait to get on welfare and food stamps

------------

It really would help if the Republican Congress hadn't passed the Farm Bill, which funds those food stamps, eh?

[Lindag20]

But what would Dan do if he gets fired from his low level IT job for being drunk and loses his BMW and house? He'd NEED welfare and food stamps.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

God will take care of him and horse-woman.