(Week of 7/14/2012) Republican Mitt Romney continues to be seen as someone who eliminated jobs when he was CEO of Bain Capital, not as a job creator. In this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll, 36% say he eliminated jobs, and just 24% say he created them.
Of course, opinions are dependent on politics: a majority of Republicans believe Romney was a job creator.
But the belief that he eliminated jobs, along with the knowledge that he is personally wealthy, may be fueling perceptions that Romney doesn’t care about average Americans. Those perceptions, in turn, may be hurting Romney in his race against President Obama. 92% of respondents say "personally wealthy" describes Romney well, and 89% say "cares about the wealthy" does. Only about half as many (46%) agree he "cares about the middle class," and even fewer, 41%, think he "cares about people like me."
In this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll, the President has crept back out to a lead over Romney. 47% of registered voters say they will vote for President Obama if the election were being held today. 44% will vote for Romney.
More see Obama as the likely winner than view Romney that way. But the Republican seems to have one advantage: his party claims to be more enthusiastic about voting this year than the President’s. Half of Republicans report being extremely enthusiastic about casting a presidential vote; just 38% of Democrats feel that way.
Being enthusiastic about voting may not mean being enthusiastic about the candidate. Nearly half of Republicans also say that Romney’s choice of a vice presidential candidate will be very or moderately important to them.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here
Photo source: Press Association
