Romney pulls into tie in Ohio

Columbus Dispatch:

Boosted by a surge among male voters who think he’s the best candidate to fix the economy, Republican Mitt Romney has come back to tie President Barack Obama in battleground Ohio.

They are deadlocked at 49 percent in a new Dispatch/Ohio News Organization poll. Obama was ahead by 5 points in the same poll published on Sept. 16.

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In the new poll, Obama wins support for his foreign policy and for pushing the auto loan package for GM and Chrysler. He also benefits somewhat from damage to Romney from his secretly recorded remarks about the “47 percent” of Americans he said are dependent on the government.

But the former Massachusetts governor scores with his performance in the debates. And on the crucial question of who would do the best job handling the economy, Romney prevails by 6 percentage points among all voters — and 18 percent among independents.

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Romney wants more voters like poll participant Wesley Allen, 41, a welder at southern Ohio’s Ripley Metal Works, where he said employees have worked with a 25 percent pay cut for almost two years. Allen said he voted for Obama in 2008. 

“Four years ago, I made a mistake. I fell for the whole ‘change’ thing,” he said. “I got on the ‘change’ train. But there wasn’t any change.” 

This year, Allen has made plans with four co-workers to meet in front of his Ripley home at 6 a.m. on Election Day and go vote together — all for Romney. 

“I honestly believe that Romney will, with his business sense, be able to get us out of this. Four years with Obama and we haven’t succeeded in anything.”
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Obama seems to have a real problem attracting male voters.  His gender gap with males is making his election less likely.  Perhaps he should have mandated free condoms and vasectomies.  Alternatively, he might have done better with a real plan to help the economy and get people back to work.  Instead, he offered a plan of more failed liberalism.

Here is the Cincinnati Enquier story on the poll.