Poll shows Obama distraction effort not working

Washington Post:

 The Republican National Convention opens this week with President Obama and presumptive nominee Mitt Romney running evenly, with voters more focused on Obama’s handling of the nation’s flagging economy than on some issues dominating the political debate in recent weeks. 

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Romney at 47 percent among registered voters and Obama at 46 percent — barely changed from the deadlocked contest in early July. 

The findings continue a months-long pattern, with neither the incumbent nor the challenger able to sustain clear momentum, despite airing hundreds of millions of dollars in television ads — most of them negative — and exchanging some of the harshest early rhetoric seen in a modern presidential campaign.

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 The Post-ABC survey highlights the dominance of the economy as an issue in the 2012 election. Seventy-two percent of voters say the president’s handling of the economy will be a “major factor” in their vote this November. 

Fewer voters place great significance on other issues that have roiled the campaign, including newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate’s plan to restructure Medicare, differences between the parties on women’s issues and Romney’s handling of his tax returns.
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What the poll seems to show is that Obama shot his wad on negative ads and has little to show for it.  The issues he and the Democrats have been pushing have little traction outside of voter groups that were already backing Obama anyway.  The Akin fiasco also has apparently had little effect on the Presidential race as Missouri polls also show Romney leading by 10 points in that state.   With Romney now able to spend his larger war chest of money, I look for him to start pulling further ahead.