WASHINGTON, Oct 25: A hoarse President Barack Obama swung into a second day of a campaigning blitz in a narrowing race while a new Associated Press-GfK poll showed he had ceded his 16-point advantage among women, a surprising drop among a key group that is crucial to his winning a second term.
The poll also showed Republican challenger Mitt Romney is favored by 47 per cent of likely voters to 45 per cent for the president less than two weeks before election day.
Obama was scheduled to stop in his home town of Chicago to vote, becoming the first US president to vote early in person. The election is on Nov 6, but voters are increasingly choosing to cast ballots before then.
Obama’s dip in support among women appeared to reflect a recent drive by Romney to show himself as a more moderate candidate after months of campaigning as a hard-right conservative.
Having gained ground with women, however, Romney’s campaign now must deal with the fallout from a comment by a Romney-endorsed Senate candidate in Indiana, who said that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, “that’s something God intended”.
Richard Mourdock’s comment was not what most Republicans wanted to be discussing days before an extremely close election largely focused on concerns about the weak US economic recovery.
“I don’t think politicians in Washington, most of whom are male, should be making health care decisions for women,” Obama told a Florida crowd on Thursday.
Romney ignored reporters’ questions about the comments on Thursday in Ohio. His campaign has said Romney disagreed with what Mourdock said, but stood by his endorsement of the Senate candidate. Romney opposes abortion but, unlike Mourdock, supports exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Romney has narrowed or eliminated Obama leads on many key issues after a commanding first debate performance on Oct 3. His poll gains show that his economic argument has made progress with women as he has sought to soften his image. A month ago, women favored Obama over Romney on the economy 56 per cent to 40 per cent. Now, the split has shifted to 49 per cent for Romney and 45 per cent for Obama.
The poll showed Obama still leads 55 per cent to 41 per cent among female likely voters on the question of which candidate would make the right decisions on women’s issues.
Despite the good news for Republicans, polls in a number of battleground states that will decide the election still appear to favor Obama. The presidential election is not decided by nationwide popular vote but in state-by-state contests.—AP