In the wake of Mitt Romney’s attempt to lay the Ohio manufacturing plant’s demise where he was speaking on the President’s shoulder, polls show swing-state are economies are improving, especially in Ohio. The drywall plant where Romney was delivering a campaign speech focused on the theme “Obama Isn’t Working” but was later questioned as the Lorain, Ohio plant actually closed under the Bush administration and Ohio’s unemployment has dropped from 8.8% to 7.5%. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Mr. Romney and the GOP to make credible arguments against the President’s fiscal policies as the economy improves around them. While not without worry, one analyst pointed out how easily things can change pointing to the slowdown during the middle of 2011. True, but there is also a valid argument to be made that the downturn and worries of a double-dip recession were due to the months of debt ceiling battles in Congress between the House Republicans, Tea Party freshmen and the White House and the resulting uncertainty that created.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The improving economy is swinging the pendulum in President Barack Obama’s favor in the 14 states where the presidential election will likely be decided.
Recent polls have shown Obama gaining an edge over his likely Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, in several so-called swing states — those that are considered up for grabs.
What’s made the difference is that unemployment has dropped more sharply in several swing states than in the nation as a whole. A resurgence in manufacturing is helping the economy — and Obama’s chances — in the industrial Midwestern states of Ohio and Michigan.
And Arizona, Nevada and Florida, where unemployment remains high, are getting some relief from an uptick in tourism.
“The biggest reason for the president’s improving prospects probably is the economy,” says Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
