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| Screen Shot via Daily Dish, showing Obama approval on economy at 37.6%, disapproval at 53.7% |
There is a reason Barack Obama has been throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at Mitt Romney and that is to distract from and distort his own economic record using any method, including continued attacks that almost every fact check organization has debunked, giving him 4 Pinocchio's, called his attacks misleading and outright lies.
From now until November the general public can expect more of the same, but polling is showing that those distractions may work for a week or two here and there, but the public always goes back to what they are concerned about..... jobs and the economy.
That is what Americans want to discuss and that is what Barack Obama cannot discuss.
In 2009 Obama said his focus was on jobs. In 2010 Obama said his singular focus was on jobs. In 2011 Obama promised his singular focus was on jobs, the RNC actually compiled a video montage back in September 2011 showing those statements and asking "sound familiar?
June 2012 marked the 41st straight month that unemployment has been over 8 percent.
Priority polling shows that jobs and the economy are first and foremost on voter's minds, has been, still is and will continue to be the number one issue by a large margin.
Yesterday CBS News reported on a CBS News/New York Times poll, showing that Republican enthusiasm was up and Democratic enthusiasm is down as well as 64 percent of registered voters believing the country is on the wrong track.
Today, the New York Times published their report on the poll (PDF of poll here), finding that if the election was held today, 45 percent would vote for Romney, 43 percent for Obama.
The most worrisome finding for Obama is that on the two top issues, jobs and the economy, Romney is ahead by 8 percentage points.
As the focus of the campaign trail shifts to speculation over Mr. Romney’s choice of a running mate, only a quarter of voters say that choice matters a lot to their decision for November. Far more important, those surveyed said, are issues like the economy and jobs, health care, taxes, the deficit and national security — most of them areas in which Mr. Romney is roughly tied or has an advantage in the poll.Voters gave Mr. Obama an advantage when it came to foreign policy and social issues.Asked which candidate they believed would do a better job handling the economy and unemployment, 49 percent said Mr. Romney, 41 percent Mr. Obama.
While polls are snap shots in time and a variety of issues can cause a bounce, a drop or even turn around election prospects, other indicators are just as concerning to the Obama reelection team, such as consumer confidence which places Obama in the same group as the first President Bush and Jimmy Carter, both of which lost their reelection campaigns.
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| Chart via American Enterprise Institute |
The bottom line is that while Obama, liberals and the Obama media continue to focus on Romney's taxes or when he did or did not leave Bain Capitial, the American people continue to focus on jobs and the economy.
It is the economy. It has been the economy. It is going to be the economy in November and no amount of distraction is going to change that.
[Update] Take a look at the new report from the Government Accountability Institute showing how much time Obama actually focuses on the economy. (Report embedded at the link)
