Obama, Romney Fight For Middle Class – OpEd

By Andrei Ilyashenko

n the eyes of the US electorate, Barack Obama looks cuter than his opponent at the forthcoming presidential election Mitt Romney, according to the results of the Reuters public opinion poll published today. However, 75% of respondents believe that the country’s economy is on the wrong track.

The public opinion poll shows that 40% of US citizens want to vote for Romney and 39% for Obama. Obama’s supporters concentrated on this topic when speaking at the congress of the US Democratic Party which opened in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday.

First lady Michelle Obama was setting the tone. She focused on people of modest means, like her own family, saying that Barack always thought about her father and grandmother when planning the restoration of the US economy.

The essence of Obama’s economic policy is raising taxes for the well-to-do and redistributing the state income in favour of low-income groups, as well as targeted support of business. Mitt Romney, on the contrary, believes that taxes should be cut down, so that large and medium-size companies had more money to invest in their business.

Obama’s election programme gives him a good chance of winning the presidential election, Director of the Institute of Strategic Planning Alexander Gusev believes.

“I would bet on Barack Obama. There is every reason to believe that he has a better chance of winning the presidential race and Americans themselves think so.”

Announcer: Nevertheless, the economic statistics is still against Obama. On Tuesday, information was published proving the most dramatic fall in US manufacturing over the last 3 years. The current president’s opponents say sarcastically that this week’s main event will be publishing new unemployment figures, rather than the Democratic Party congress.

At the previous election, Obama mostly won due to electors’ sympathies. They are high now as well, but they could not be sufficient to be reelected, expert Alexander Shumilin from the Institute of the US and Canada at the Russian Academy of Sciences believes.

“Obama’s charisma could prove to be insufficient in the current difficult situation in the economy and due to failures in the foreign policy. During the second presidential term charisma usually plays second fiddle. The most important argument is achievements in the first term and here most US citizens are having serious doubts.”

Obama is to present his programme to voters at the congress on the 6th of September. The fight for the middle class will continue until the presidential election which is to take place on the 6th of November.