Obama Extends Lead On Romney While Romney Spreads New Lies

The polls this week show that Obama has moved from a near-tie in the popular vote to a significant lead over Mitt Romney. With a bad economy it is certainly possible for polls to change, especially if Republicans can get people to forget who caused this and to ignore all they have done to prevent economic recovery. At the moment the deciding factor is that voters just do not like or trust Mitt Romney, and for good reason.

Yesterday Reuters released a poll showing that almost two-thirds of the voters believe the country is moving in the wrong direction yet still support Obama by a margin of 49 percent to 42 percent. If this trend continues, Romney has no hope:

… in a reversal from July, registered voters thought Obama was stronger than Romney in dealing with jobs and the economy, and with tax issues.

The poll indicated that 46 percent of registered voters thought Obama was stronger on jobs and the economy, compared with 44 percent for Romney. And on tax matters, 49 percent saw Obama as stronger, compared with 38 percent for Romney.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows a new high in Romney’s unfavorably rating:

Forty percent of Americans overall view Romney favorably, 49 percent unfavorably – leaving him underwater, at least numerically, in 10 straight ABC News/ Washington Post polls this year. A new high of 30 percent now see him “strongly” unfavorably, nearly double his strongly favorable score.

CNN shows Obama leading Romney by 52 percent to 45 percent with lots of bad news for Romney:

While Romney’s favorable rating has remained steady (47% now compared to 48% in July), his unfavorable rating has jumped from 42% last month to 48% now. The president’s 56%-42% favorable-unfavorable rating now is little changed from July.

Among independents, the poll indicates Romney’s image has taken a beating. In May, only 40% of independents had an unfavorable view of Romney. Now, 52% of independents have a negative view of him.

Other findings: Sixty-four percent of all Americans, and 68% of independents, think Romney favors the rich over the middle class. And 63% of the public thinks Romney should release more tax returns than he has already made public, a figure which rises to 67% among independents.

“These are all signs that a summer of negative campaigning on the part of the Democrats seems to be taking its toll on the presumptive GOP nominee,” says Holland.

Most significantly, it appears that Romney’s image as a can-do guy on the economy may have also been hurt. In May, 50% of all Americans said that the economy would get better if Romney were elected. That’s now down to 45%, two points below Obama’s number. It’s likely that all of this is the result of the Democrats’ efforts to paint Romney in an unflattering light, but so far Obama has avoided any blowback from that strategy, as evidenced by no rise in his unfavorable rating.

Is it just the liberal media piling on Romney? Doesn’t look like it. Even Fox shows Obama leading by nine:

The president would take 49 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 40 percent in a head-to-head matchup if the election were held today, the poll found. Last month, Obama had a four percentage-point edge of 45 percent to 41 percent. This marks the second time this year the president has had a lead outside the poll’s margin of sampling error.

Obama’s advantage comes largely from increased support among independents, who now pick him over Romney by 11 percentage points. Some 30 percent of independents are undecided. Last month, Obama had a four-point edge among independents, while Romney had the advantage from April through early June.

Back when the race showed a tie or tiny lead for Obama, Obama had a significant lead in the electoral college. Today most polls show that Romney is only likely to take away two states which Obama won in 2008–Indiana and North Carolina. Obama leads in most recent polls n Ohio, Florida, and Virginia. If things turn better for Romney he might to pick off some additional states. While most polls show Romney trailing in Colorado, the Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News swing state poll does show Romney with a lead there. Even if Romney could pick off Colorado, and perhaps Florida where Obama only has a narrow lead, Romney would still have to win in states where he is now trailing to win the election.

Romney is sticking with his losing strategy of lying about what Barack Obama has said, frequently by selectively editing tapes. In today’s lie, Romney falsely claims that Obama wants the government to bail out every industry:

The Romney campaign, which has apparently exhausted the selectively edited clip of President Obama saying “you didn’t build that,” has seized on a new soundbite to distort. The campaign sent an email blast Thursday afternoon featuring a video of an Obama rally in Colorado from earlier that day and falsely claimed that he wants the government to bail out every industry. “I Want To Do The Same Thing With Manufacturing Jobs … In Every Industry,” it read.

The distortion comes from Obama’s speech in Pueblo, Colorado, touting his administration’s successful revival of the auto industry, which came back from the brink of collapse to add thousands of jobs and is now poised for its strongest sales since 2007. Obama said he wanted to help other flagging industries experience the same kind of success. Conservatives, however, are using the clip to make it sound like Obama wants to bail out every industry.

Here is what he actually said:

OBAMA: I said I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back and GM is number one again. So now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs not just in the auto industry, but in every industry. I don’t want those jobs taking root in places like China. I want them taking root in places like Pueblo.

Romney also lowered himself to claiming that Obama is engaging in a “war on religion” in a new ad today. I wonder if Romney will resort to scaring people by saying Obama will take away their Bibles, as the RNC did against John Kerry.