| Romney draws even with Obama as Florida poll looms |
WASHINGTON With polls showing Republican Mitt Romney drawing even with President Barack Obama, the incumbent heads to Florida on Thursday to court voters in one of the swing states that could determine the November election.
Florida is the largest of the dozen or so toss-up states that are drawing much of the two candidates’ attention in the 2012 race, and Obama, who has already made several campaign stops in the Sunshine State this year, is well aware that a Romney victory there could derail his re-election.
Obama will likely try to keep the focus on his rival’s record at Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded and ran for several years and which has been criticised for buying firms that later shipped many of their jobs to law-wage economies like China and India.
The re-election team has also hammered Romney over his refusal to release pre-2010 tax returns, as they seek to paint the presumptive nominee as a wealthy elitist who sought to squirrel his money away in offshore accounts in Switzerland and tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
Romney is challenging Obama on his economic record, arguing that he is better-placed than the Democrat to turn around the still sluggish US economy.
A New York Times/CBS News poll showed a growing number of Americans might agree.
Although the results were within the margin of error, Thursday’s poll marked the first time Romney showed a numerical edge, with 45 per cent of respondents saying they would vote for him if the elections were held now, compared with 43 per cent for Obama, The New York Times said.
And it showed a key shift in respondents’ attitudes toward Obama’s ability to improve the economy, with 39 per cent saying they approve of his handling of the economy and 55 per cent saying they disapproved.
Actor Morgan Freeman, meanwhile, is the latest Hollywood figure to join the ranks of $1 million donors to Obama’s re-election effort with his donation in June to the ‘Super PAC’ helping Obama.
The Oscar-winning actor’s big donation to Priorities USA Action, the ‘super’ political action committee backing the president, was announced on Thursday and will be reported in the group’s federal disclosures on Friday.
Agencies
|
 |
|
|
| NEWS UPDATES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
