Politics
Election 2012: Obama stronger in swing states as economy improves
Many blue-collar workers in Ohio and Michigan credit the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler for saving tens of thousands of auto industry jobs. Romney opposed the auto bailout.
In Florida, unemployment tumbled to nine percent in March from 10.7 percent a year earlier. That was more than twice the nationwide drop of 0.7 percentage point (from 8.9 percent to 8.2 percent) over the same period.
A rise in tourism is helping. Even Nevada, a focal point of the real estate collapse, has seen some improvement: Unemployment dropped to 12 percent in March from 13.6 percent a year earlier.
Unemployment is down over the past year in the 10 other states the Associated Press identifies as swing states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
But things can change swiftly and the economic recovery remains fragile. A month before the most recent polling, for instance, Obama was running behind or neck-and-neck with Romney in battleground states.
A jobs recovery fizzled in mid-2011, so there is no guarantee the unemployment rate will continue to fall this year.
Indeed, Romney was quick to pounce after the government said job creation plunged in March after three strong months of growth. Romney called the numbers “weak and very troubling…Millions of Americans are paying a high price for President Obama’s economic policies.”
Higher gasoline prices, up 60 cents this year to a national average US$3.88 a gallon, could also turn voters against Obama. Still, prices have dropped over the past two weeks, and analysts say they could fall further.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
