Poll Aside, Mitt Romney Hurts the Middle Class

September 26, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Republicans are jumping up and down over a recent Politico/George Washington University poll that shows Mitt Romney ahead of President Barack Obama with the middle class. I'm happy for my Republican friends that they could find one poll where their candidate is ahead.

The questions my buddies over on the right side of the aisle should be asking themselves is:

Why, if the middle class prefers Mitt Romney, isn't that translating into percentage points for him on both the national level and in the swing states?
And why does the consumer confidence index show more growth for the month of August and the first few weeks of September—higher than consumer confidence has been in a long time?
And why do polls show that three out of four Americans don't feel they can connect with Mitt Romney?

[See a collection of political cartoons on Mitt Romney.]

The reality is, despite a bad economy, a high unemployment rate, and unrest in the Muslim world, America trusts the president to bring them through this tunnel of darkness into the light.

And further reality is that Paul Ryan's budget plan—which Mitt Romney doesn't agree with 100 percent (his words, not mine)—and Mitt Romney's idea for the United States economically will help the upper class and hurt the middle class more than they are experiencing today under President Obama.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign.]

So in my humble opinion, these poll numbers are odd, for there is absolutely no question which candidate will hurt the middle class as opposed to help the middle class. Mitt Romney will hurt the middle class, especially if he runs our country the way he ran his businesses, outsourcing thousands of jobs—thousands of middle-class jobs—overseas.

A poll is the opinion of a group of people based on the question posed and the way it is worded in that moment in time. So, Mitt Romney and his GOP buddies shouldn't get too excited and send a change of address card to the post office just quite yet. As a Democrat, I am happy with the president's lead over Romney having expanded, but I also know I can't be overly confident based on one moment in time. (Yes, I hear a Whitney Houston song coming on.)