Voters want Romney and Obama to take on the tough issues concerning the nation's fiscal future, especially the $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts known as the 'fiscal cliff.'
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (l.) and President Obama talk after the first presidential debate in Denver in this Oct. 3 file photo.
Charlie Neibergall/AP/File
EnlargeThe key to winning the White House may run through the issue too fearsome for Washington to tackle: the looming fiscal cliff.
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Liz Marlantes explains what each candidate needs to accomplish in the upcoming second presidential debate.Polling and analysis released Monday by the left (Democratic pollsters Greenberg Quinlan Rosner), right (Republican pollsters Resurgent Republic) and center (Center Forward, a moderate Democratic group) tells a tale of an American public thoroughly upset with Washington?s handling of the weighty fiscal issues set to slam the economy come Jan. 1. But if voters aren?t totally versed on the specifics of the ?fiscal cliff,? they?re willing to throw their political support behind the presidential candidate who provides a bolder, more compelling vision for how to deal with the nation?s future.
The Center Forward poll, conducted by the bipartisan public affairs group Purple Strategies, found that slightly more than half of voters (and more than 6 in 10 in swing states) are concerned about the fiscal cliff.
The cliff is Washington shorthand for some $600 billion in higher taxes and lower government spending that will set in after the first of the year and that government economists believe could be enough to push the American economy back into a recession.
The poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters and had an overall margin of error of 3.1 percent, found that voters were even more unanimous on two fronts. First, nearly 8 in 10 disapproved of how Congress has handled the fiscal cliff thus far.
But second, almost 3 in 4 voters say the two presidential campaigns have done too little to inform them of their plans for dealing with the cliff. (Voters aren?t getting any more help on the congressional level, with 82 percent saying they aren?t getting sufficient info on the fiscal cliff from their candidates for Congress.)?
?If candidates aren?t going to talk about it, either in their debates or in their advertising, it?s hard to bring the American people to know a lot about what the fiscal problems are confronting the country,? said Steve Bell, senior director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, at a press briefing on Monday.
But the candidate that does address the issues could reap large political rewards, say Democratic pollsters Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, in a research memo.
Part of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney?s post-debate polling bounce wasn't about his rhetorical style ? it was about his willingness to talk decisively about the nation?s economic future, the pollsters write.
?Mitt Romney is strongest when he uses future-oriented economic messages to talk about the policy choices,? they say, noting that 3 in 4 voters agree with Romney?s five-point economic plan of job creation, energy independence, improved education, and lower deficits and taxes.
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