Poll boost for Barack Obama as Mitt Romney softens healthcare stance
Last Updated: Sep 10, 2012 4:28 PM ET -- Source
US President Barack Obama waves as he arrives to speak during a campaign event at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 9, 2012 during the second day of a 2-day bus tour across Florida.
Despite a weak U.S. jobs report and lukewarm reviews for his convention speech last week, U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election chances have been bolstered by several new polls and a fundraising victory over Mitt Romney.
Gallup’s latest seven-day tracking poll has Obama ahead of Romney by five percentage points, 49% to 44%. Rasmussen also had Obama ahead by five points in its latest poll.
The Gallup poll only had Obama ahead by one percentage point going in the Democrat’s convention last week. A convention “bump” was expected and analysts say it will be the next round of polls that show if Obama’s lead is statistically significant enough to carry him into the presidential debate on October 3.
The New York Times election forecast blog, FiveThirtyEight, has Obama’s chances of winning the election at 80.7%, up 6.2% since September 2.
While Obama has maintained a consistent small single digit lead on Romney in the popular vote over the past few months, the incumbent has a strong grasp on the majority of the swing states that will decide the presidency.
According to poll aggregate website Real Clear Politics, Obama has a slight advantage in nine of the 10 states that are considered in play this election.
The second set of good news for Obama Monday morning was that for the first time since April, his campaign outraised their Republican rivals, raking in US$114-million verses $111-million for Romney.
More than 1.1 million Americans gave to Obama’s campaign, with 98% of their donations under $250.
Romney is believed to continue to have a larger war chest than Obama, allowing him to out advertise the president during the home stretch of the race.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney addresses the audience at a Victory Rally with the GOP team at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Va, Saturday, September 8, 2012.
ROMNEY WANTS OBAMACARE GONE, EXCEPT FOR THE GOOD PARTS
The political blogosphere reacted in confusion Monday after Romney’s interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” suggested a flip-flop on Obamacare and featured him attacking a plan his running mate, Paul Ryan, backed.
Romney said although he plans on repealing Obamacare if elected president this November, there are a number of keys parts of Obama’s healthcare reform that he intends to keep.
“Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
“One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like.”
Obama’s healthcare reform is considered his signature domestic accomplishment during his first four years in office. However, taken as a whole, Obamacare has proven to be unpopular with Americans, even though many of its individual provisions are very popular.
Republicans have used Obamacare as a rallying cry during the 2012 election cycle, and Obama notably played down his healthcare reform success during his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.
Romney has led the charge against the healthcare plan, even though he is in the awkward position of being seen as its godfather. Obamacare is partially based on elements of the state healthcare reform plan that Romney implemented as governor of Massachusetts.
“I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan,” Romney said on “Meet the Press”. “And even in Massachusetts when I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people.”
After being accused of flip-flopping on health care, the Romney camp issued a response to the National Review, saying: “Governor Romney will ensure that discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions who maintain continuous coverage is prohibited.”
They also pointed to previous comments made by Romney.
“I also want to make sure that people can’t get dropped if they have a preexisting condition. . . . So let’s say someone has been continuously insured and they develop a serious condition and let’s say they lose their job or they change jobs, they move and they go to a new place. I don’t want them to be denied insurance because they’ve got some preexisting condition,” Romney said in June.
Obama’s reforms are meant to bring coverage to more than 30 million of the 50 million uninsured Americans amid rising healthcare costs.
Republicans say it reduces choice for individuals and interferes in the business of the states.
Speaking on the same program Sunday, Romney also denounced last year’s bipartisan debt-ceiling deal which averted an unprecedented U.S. government debt default, even though it was backed by Ryan.
“That’s a big mistake,” he said. “I thought it was a mistake on the part of the White House to propose it. I think it was a mistake for Republicans to go along with it.”
He did not mention Ryan by name.
The deal agreed to a nearly $1-trillion cut to federal spending over 10 years with the pledge to cut another $1.2 trillion to reduce budget deficits. The deal also included an increase in the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority, as it had reached its legal limit.
“I want to maintain defense spending at the current level of the GDP,” Romney said. “This sequestration idea of the White House, which is cutting our defense, I think is an extraordinary miscalculation.”
With files from Reuters