Mitt Romney has been trying to extricate himself from the mess caused by the video of him deriding the poorer “47 per cent” of Americans.
Hence a speech on Wednesday promising to “be president for 100 per cent of Americans” and a similar op-ed in USA Today. Politico.com reports a new “rescue plan” for his campaign, talking more about specific policies.
But the flak from Romney’s Right remains especially damaging. Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan blogged (online.wsj.com) last night: “This week I called [the Romney campaign] incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant ‘rolling calamity’.”
On thedailybeast.com, Democratic political consultant Robert Shrum predicts a post-election “civil war” in Romney’s party as “the irrepressible conflict between the Jeb Bush Republicans and the Paul Ryan Republicans” boils over.
The next big challenge is the first televised debate on October 3. Romney can’t be looking forward to it. He conceded yesterday that Obama is “a very eloquent speaker”; Romney’s “47 per cent” remarks were described by his own running mate as “obviously inarticulate”.
Swing state polls look good for Obama
How to read the blizzard of US election opinion polls? With 39 new ones just on Wednesday, it isn’t easy. Nationally, Obama is leading by only one or two points.
But in the swing states, he is ahead. Florida is especially crucial, with its 29 electoral college votes: yesterday politicalwire.com reported three polls showing Obama between two and four points ahead there. And NBC’s FirstRead political blog (firstread.nbcnews.com) reports one poll this week showing that among Latino women, who are key, Obama leads Romney by 74 to 21 per cent.
Meanwhile, other polls (summaries at realclearpolitics.com) show Obama at least five points up in the swing states of Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
- The effect of Romney’s gaffes on the presidential race may still be unclear, but they don’t appear to be helping Republicans battling to take control of the US Senate. Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com finds a rapid shift to the Democrats in key contests such as those in Virginia, Florida and Wisconsin. Salon.com reports that Wisconsin Republican candidate for Senate Tommy Thompson, falling behind his Democratic opponent, blames “the presidential thing”. Does he mean Romney?
