The presidential election seems like a never ending discussion of the economy, turnout and voters who claim that after 5 years of Romney running and 4 years of Obama leading that they still ‘can’t decide’ who they want to vote for.
However, the race really isn’t that complicated at all. If you want to know who’s got a better chance of winning the election in the fall, just imagine that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are two guys going after the same girl, (Her name is Miss America). According to a new poll released by the Associated Press, despite Obama’s mistakes and Romney’s resume, Mitt’s not going to take Miss America to the prom. Why? Because she just doesn’t believe him.
The Romney campaign has a very simple and very effective formula for beating Barack Obama and sweeping the voters off their feet in 2012.
1. Remind everyone that Obama is a nice guy but he just can’t fix this economy.
2. Tell everyone that you are capable of fixing the economy.
3. Stay vewy vewy quiet about all of your other policy positions and hope you can slip into the Whitehouse under a cloud of disappointment in Obama.
This is a very good plan, and it might work, but every single step has to work flawlessly. However the AP poll reveals that the vast majority of Americans don’t think it really matters who wins the presidency, that the economy will remain weak to poor for the next few years.
People are especially pessimistic about the future president’s influence over jobs, according to the Associated Press-GfK poll. Asked how much impact the November winner will have on unemployment, 6 in 10 gave answers ranging from slim to none.
This is bad news for Obama but especially Romney who has staked his claim on the presidency by claiming he can do what Obama hasn’t. In most surveys voters think that Obama will do better across a slew of economic issues, especially when it comes to getting everyone back to work, and that he’s more concerned about the needs of regular people. The only two areas where Mitt scores better than Obama on the economy are voter’s faith in his ability to fix the deficit and keeping America competitive with foreign companies. Unfortunately according to the new poll 55% say that the next president will have “just some” to “no impact” on the deficit. So where does that leave Obama, let alone Mitt Romney? Let’s take it back to high-school.
Four years later and things didn’t exactly turn out the way Miss America expected. She watched her man get punked by those Republicans in Congress, he kept going on and on about the same wars that her last boyfriend started, and her economy isn’t much better than it was when she let him move into the White House.
She’s almost 230 years old now and doesn’t know if it’s ever going to get any better. Now along comes Mitt Romney, he says that Miss America should ditch all that emotional stuff she has with Obama and get with him since he can fix that economy in no time. But you know what? Everyone has been promising that for 10 years now and it’s hard to believe that anyone can really fix the problem. And if the problem can’t be fixed why switch from the likable but ineffective Barry the Bomber to the unlikable and likely equally ineffective Mitt Romney?
Thus the AP poll and current polls tell us the same sordid tale. Romney isn’t just trying to overcome America’s current boyfriend but he’s battling against a series of bad economic relationships that run back almost a decade. That is not a recipe for success in American elections or getting a date to prom.
I anticipate that Romney will continue to gain against Obama for the summer, because America is flirting. The economy is bad and Mitt is the only alternative, maybe Obama will get jealous and pass the Dream Act, or an effective jobs bill. But there is a huge difference between who takes a girl to prom and who brings her home, and if this poll is to be believed when Mitt Romney comes back from the punch table with two glasses his date is already going to be long gone having decided to give Obama one more chance.
This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.
