Several recent presidential polls have shown Mitt Romney narrowing the gap with President Obama. And a CBS/New York Times poll released Wednesday offered further evidence: It found the two men tied at 46 percent support each.
Even more revealing: This came despite the fact that voters appear to like Obama personally much more than they like Romney: The president’s favorability stood at 42 percent, compared to just 29 percent for his GOP challenger.
That’s likely to be a concern for Team Obama, Joe Scarborough said.
“What the Obama people are looking at right now is the fact that Mitt Romney’s likability numbers are in the 20s,” said Scarborough, “and yet their guy is still tied with him in most polls this week. That is a disturbing trend for the White House.”
Romney has begun to fine-tune his message around the reality that most Americans seem to think Obama’s a decent guy.
“Even if you like Barack Obama, we can’t afford Barack Obama,” he told a crowd yesterday. “It’s time to get someone that’ll get this economy going and put the American people back to work.”
Scarborough thinks that’s the right message. “Republicans’ best line of attack is not calling Barack Obama a Communist or a racist or a Marxist. That does not win national elections,” said Scarborough. “What wins national elections is saying, he’s a good guy. He’s a great father, he’s a great husband…he’s just wrong. He’s wrong on the economy, he’s wrong on foreign policy, he’s wrong in all the important areas.” Scarborough added: “That’s a much smarter tack than most of the Republican Party’s taken over the last three, three and half years, trying to demonize a man that most of America likes.” Obama, meanwhile, is starting to subtly remind voters about Romney’s privileged background. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” he said yesterday in a speech, drawing an obvious contrast with Romney, whose father was CEO of General Motors, then Michigan’s governor. “Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance.”
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