National Journal ^ | June 13,2012 | By Josh Kraushaar
Last night, veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart conducted a focus group featuring 12 undecided, ticket-splitting voters in Colorado, which illustrated the tough challenge President Obama faces in winning a second term. He's lost significant ground among these swing voters: Ten of the participants voted for Obama in 2008; only three of them said they leaned towards re-electing him in 2012. In an initial survey taking leaners into account, Mitt Romney led Obama 5-3, with four completely undecided.
Shown some of Romney's campaign speeches, participants commented that he was short on specifics and sounded like a politician.
"I identify with Romney's background, but Obama still has a lot of good ideas out there that haven't quite comes to pass, and I don't know what Romney has out there," said Stephanie Rydalch, 38, a state care provider, leaning towards supporting Romney.
The bottom line: The reactions from the focus group explain why Obama is going hard-negative against Romney - it may be the campaign's only way to win. Most of the participants sounded dissatisfied with president and were ready to make a change, but didn't know much about the challenger, either.
Almost unanimously, the participants said they'd prefer to hang out with Obama over Romney, but no one said that would shape their vote in November. It's a sign that even if Obama holds a significant edge on personal likability, it's unlikely to translate into many votes if they view his job performance unfavorably.
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