May 9 2012
Voters had more confidence in how GOP challenger Mitt Romney would handle the economy. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum, who previously had been a candidate in the Republican presidential primary, offered a late-night e-mail endorsement to Romney.
Los Angeles Times: Polls: Obama, Romney Neck And Neck Six Months Ahead Of Election
Still, at this early point in the campaign, voters appeared to prefer Obama over Romney on a host of other issues aside from the economy. Obama holds a 23-percentage-point lead over Romney (58% to 35%) on the question of who would better stand up for the middle class. He also leads Romney on "sharing your values" and on who would better handle foreign policy, taxes, healthcare, jobs, and Social Security and Medicare. The only category in which Romney performed better than Obama was when voters were asked who would better handle the economy. Romney won 48% to Obama's 45% (Geiger, 5/7).
The Associated Press: Santorum Endorses One-Time Rival Romney
Romney visited Santorum for more than an hour on Friday at the Pittsburgh office of Santorum's longtime strategist. The session covered many of Santorum's concerns about Romney's campaign, especially the sincerity of his vow to repeal Democrats' national health care law that was modeled on one Romney signed into law as Massachusetts governor. Those worries, it seems, were assuaged during their private session that ended without Santorum's public backing (Elliott, 5/8).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |