US voters are nearly evenly divided between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney with five months to go before the election, especially on handling the economy, polls show.
With US unemployment still hovering above 8%, both candidates have stepped up their emphasis on jobs and the economy. Obama and Romney have offered a starkly differing vision of how the economy should work as they appeal to voters who say jobs are the foremost issue in the November election.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Obama and Romney locked in a dead heat over handling the economy. They are tied at 47%.
Overall, 49% said they back Obama for re-election and 46% preferred Romney, a statistically insignificant difference.
Other recent national polls show a similarly close margin.
Earlier polls generally showed the former Massachusetts governor holding a slight lead over Obama on economic issues and Obama slightly ahead overall.
But the tightening follows an aggressive attack on Romney’s business credentials by the Obama campaign, including ads painting him as a job-destroying corporate raider at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he co-founded.
The Obama campaign has focused on two companies that were closed down or failed after they were absorbed into the web of enterprises under Bain Capital. Romney maintains financial ties to the company but left it years ago to run the Salt Lake City Olympic games and then to serve as Massachusetts governor.
Romney called the attacks “character assassination.” But Obama defended the tactic as legitimate and suggested Romney’s background was a poor qualification for the White House since being president involves more than “maximizing profits.”
The survey found that 80% of Americans still hold a negative view of the economy, but 54% said they felt more positively about the economic situation in the coming years, and 58% felt the financial prospects would improve.
The Obama campaign’s line of attack illustrates the president’s complicated relationship with the business community. He has used populist language to attack Wall Street executives and bankers as “fat cats” and called for an end to tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, but he also expanded the government’s rescue of the auto industry and has promoted tax breaks for small businesses.
While some of his Wall Street support has waned, he still draws a significant amount of campaign contributions from major investors, retaining a good relationship with, among others, billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Romney’s campaign has welcomed the debate on jobs.
Romney swept the Arkansas and Kentucky Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, inching closer to clinching the nomination by winning at least 73 of the 75 delegates at stake in the two states.
Romney now has 1,065 delegates, leaving him just 79 shy of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention in late August in Tampa, Florida. He should clinch the nomination in next week’s Texas primary.
With no serious opposition left in the state-by-state Republican primary race, Romney has been focusing on fundraising for the general election and his campaign against Obama.