Picking Ryan has done little to win voters for Romney

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney shakes hands with vice presidential running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (L) after accepting the nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida August 30, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate has done little to attract voters to the Republican ticket and more think he is not qualified to be president than believe he is ready for the White House, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Monday.

Fewer than a third of registered voters, 29 percent, said the selection of Ryan made them feel more favorable toward Romney. But with 27 percent in the online poll saying it made them feel less favorable, Ryan's place on the ticket may have little effect on the November 6 election.

The results were largely split along party lines - with 46 percent of Democrats saying Ryan's choice made them less favorable, compared with 8 percent who said the opposite. And 56 percent of Republicans felt more favorable, versus 6 percent.

But Ryan has not swayed many political independents, the voters expected to play a decisive role in the election. Eighteen percent felt more favorable and 13 percent less so.

"Overall, he doesn't really appear to be impacting the top of the ticket much," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "He's still a bit of an unknown entity."

The survey was conducted September 20-24, a time when some Republican commentators have been pressing Romney's campaign to do more to promote Ryan, who is seen as a proponent of big fiscal ideas, like a plan to overhaul the government Medicare health insurance program for retirees.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that some conservatives think Romney's campaign has been too cautious by avoiding Ryan's big ideas and hoping that President Barack Obama will defeat himself.

Polls have given Obama a steady nationwide lead over Romney since the Democratic convention early this month. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll on Monday had Obama leading by 49 percent to 43 percent for Romney among likely voters.

"Obama's now been healthfully in the lead since the convention. If he can sustain this for another 45 days, it's done," Clark said.

BIDEN BENEFITS FROM INCUMBENCY

Forty-four percent of registered voters think Ryan is not qualified to be president, compared with 29 percent who feel he would be ready to step into Romney's shoes if necessary, the survey found.

A larger percentage thought that Joe Biden, 69, the incumbent Democratic vice president, is ready for the Oval Office. Biden led 43 percent to 36 percent, thanks to huge support among Democrats.

But more Democrats had faith in Biden, a former Delaware senator who is well-known as the incumbent, than Republicans had in the 42-year-old Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman who is chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Among Democrats, 74 percent said Biden was more qualified, versus 8 percent who chose Ryan and 18 percent who did not know. Seventy percent of Republicans favored Ryan, compared with 13 percent for Biden and 18 percent who did not know.

The numbers were even among independents, with 30 percent each for Biden and Ryan, and 40 percent who did not know.

More registered voters have heard of Ryan than before Romney selected him, but he still falls short in national name recognition. Only 56 percent of registered voters said they were familiar with Ryan, versus mid-August's 35 percent.

Their opinions of him are split evenly. Forty-nine percent view Ryan favorably, versus 51 percent who don't, divided largely along party lines. Among independents, 48 percent view him favorably and 52 percent don't, the poll showed.

The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of 3.1 percentage points for the 1,313 registered voters surveyed and 3.5 percentage points for the 1,095 likely voters.

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Obama should call China a currency manipulator: Romney aide

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:36pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration should formally declare China a currency manipulator in a semi-annual report due to be released by the U.S. Treasury on October 15, a spokesman for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Monday.

"Governor Romney believes China should be labeled a currency manipulator - without delaying the report - and he will move to label them as such on Day One," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an emailed reply to a query.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department declined to say whether the Obama administration would release the politically sensitive report on time or delay it until after the November 6 election.

The Obama administration has frequently delayed the currency report, which examines the foreign exchange practices of major U.S. trading partners, as did the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Many U.S. manufacturers and lawmakers complain that China deliberately undervalues it currency to give its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.

The Obama administration has pressed China diplomatically on currency issue and can point to a significant rise in the value of China's yuan since it took office.

But it has disappointed supporters by failing to formally declare China a currency manipulator in seven consecutive Treasury reports.

U.S. law calls for the reports to released on Oct 15 and April 15. The last two reports came out on Dec. 27 and May 25.

Romney has seized on the issue to try to sway votes in union-heavy industrial states like Ohio, which could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election. He has promised to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

"China's currency manipulation has taken hundreds of thousands of jobs from the U.S. and, just like he has on so many other issues, President Obama is leading from behind on taking on China," Saul said.

The White House has taken a variety of actions against Chinese trade practices that threaten U.S. jobs, including imposing temporary tariffs on Chinese-made tires and filing cases at the World Trade Organization.

The tire tariffs, which the Obama administration says saved about 1,000 U.S. jobs, are set to expire later this week after being in force for three years. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham and Christopher Wilson)

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Obama should call China a currency manipulator: Romney aide

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:36pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration should formally declare China a currency manipulator in a semi-annual report due to be released by the U.S. Treasury on October 15, a spokesman for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Monday.

"Governor Romney believes China should be labeled a currency manipulator - without delaying the report - and he will move to label them as such on Day One," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an emailed reply to a query.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department declined to say whether the Obama administration would release the politically sensitive report on time or delay it until after the November 6 election.

The Obama administration has frequently delayed the currency report, which examines the foreign exchange practices of major U.S. trading partners, as did the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Many U.S. manufacturers and lawmakers complain that China deliberately undervalues it currency to give its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.

The Obama administration has pressed China diplomatically on currency issue and can point to a significant rise in the value of China's yuan since it took office.

But it has disappointed supporters by failing to formally declare China a currency manipulator in seven consecutive Treasury reports.

U.S. law calls for the reports to released on Oct 15 and April 15. The last two reports came out on Dec. 27 and May 25.

Romney has seized on the issue to try to sway votes in union-heavy industrial states like Ohio, which could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election. He has promised to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

"China's currency manipulation has taken hundreds of thousands of jobs from the U.S. and, just like he has on so many other issues, President Obama is leading from behind on taking on China," Saul said.

The White House has taken a variety of actions against Chinese trade practices that threaten U.S. jobs, including imposing temporary tariffs on Chinese-made tires and filing cases at the World Trade Organization.

The tire tariffs, which the Obama administration says saved about 1,000 U.S. jobs, are set to expire later this week after being in force for three years. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham and Christopher Wilson)

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Romney promises to be more aggressive on campaign trail

1 of 4. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney takes the stage at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Ros Krasny

DENVER | Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:25pm EDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed on Sunday that he would campaign more aggressively in battleground states in the final 43 days before the November election.

The comments, made to reporters aboard his campaign plane, suggested Romney was taking to heart criticism from his own party about the amount of time he has spent raising funds versus speaking to voters.

"I think the fundraising season is probably getting a bit quieter. I would rather spend the time in key states," Romney said in his first comments to reporters since Monday.

Romney is about to kick off a week of campaigning in battleground states, starting with Colorado and Ohio.

In 2008, Obama won Colorado by 9 points over Republican John McCain. Before that, the state voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, with the exception of 1992.

He told reporters that Obama's campaign consistently mischaracterizes his positions on issues like taxes and abortion, and voters would get a better chance to learn about his positions during debates that begin on Oct 3.

Heavy advertising by Obama has coincided with a slow but noticeable decline in Romney's standing in opinion polls.

Although he is neck-and-neck with Obama in national tracking surveys, polls in specific battleground states like Ohio and Colorado, where advertising has been nonstop, show Obama with a slightly wider lead.

"I don't pay a lot of attention to the day-to-day polls. They change a great deal," Romney said. "And I know that in the coming six weeks, they're very unlikely to stay where they are today."

Sunday night's event in Denver kicks off a busier week for Romney, who spent much of Friday and Saturday raising money in Nevada and California.

Romney will visit Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday and head to Ohio Tuesday after a brief visit to New York to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative, where Obama will also speak.

His comments on the plane echoed a vow made in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS show "60 Minutes."

"I have to go across the country, particularly in the states that are closest and describe how it is I'm going to get the economy going, and how we're going to restore the economic freedom that built this economy in the first place," Romney said.

He defended his campaign as "very effective." Most of his top aides were in Los Angeles Saturday and Sunday for meetings thought to include debate preparation.

Still, many top Republicans are clamoring for a change in schedule and in tone for Romney.

"I want to see fire in the belly," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said of Romney on "Fox News Sunday." He also said he wants the former Massachusetts governor to be "lit up and ready to go."

"You've got to get off the heels and get out and charge forward," Walker said.

On Sunday night at Denver's D'Evelyn High School, a slightly hoarse Romney spoke to a sizeable but subdued crowd, keeping his focus on Obama.

"He's out of ideas, he's out of excuses and we're going to get him out of office," Romney said. "We're taking back America. We're going to win this one."

DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

Asked on "60 Minutes" whether a Romney administration would take aim at popular tax deductions such as mortgage and charitable deductions, which are used by millions of middle-income Americans, and how he would balance the budget while still cutting income taxes as suggested, the candidate demurred.

"The devil's in the details. The angel is in the policy, which is creating more jobs."

At the Denver rally, Romney ran through many of the talking points on the economy that he has used for several months, focusing on energy, trade, lower taxes for small business, job training and education.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Analysis: For Romney, some troubling signs among older voters

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida, September 20, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Jim YoungBy David Morgan
WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:36am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before his running mate was booed by a lobbying group for older Americans on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was losing support among such voters, whose backing is crucial to his hopes of winning the November 6 election.
New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.
Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.
Voting preferences among seniors could change in the final six weeks of the campaign, but the polling suggests that a series of recent episodes favoring Obama and the Democrats could be chipping away at Romney's support among older Americans.
Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate put the federal budget and Medicare at center stage in the campaign. But the debate over spending and entitlement programs that Romney seemed to be seeking has not unfolded the way Republicans wanted.
At the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, former President Bill Clinton gave a folksy but blistering critique of Ryan's plan to revamp Medicare, warning that it could leave seniors unprotected from escalating healthcare costs.
Meanwhile, Democrats' efforts to portray Romney as a wealthy former private equity executive with little sympathy for the less fortunate got a boost last week, from Romney himself.
On a secretly recorded video released by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, Romney was shown telling supporters at a $50,000-a-person fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans would never vote for him because they do not pay federal income taxes, feel they are "victims," and depend on government benefits.
Democrats accused Romney of dismissing a range of Americans, including elderly people who depend on government programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
Romney's campaign rejected that, but the recent polls suggest that such claims may be resonating with Americans aged 60 and older, who for months had been the only age group to consistently support Romney over Obama.
Analysts say that if Romney cannot reverse the trend among older voters, he won't win on November 6.
"If Romney loses seniors, he loses this election, period," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy specialist at the University of North Carolina. "A bad showing nationally (among older voters) does not bode well for Florida and other states with big senior populations."
THE RYAN PLAN
Ryan's plan for Medicare would limit the program's costs by converting it from a provider of popular benefits to a system that would give future beneficiaries a financial stipend to help pay for private insurance or traditional Medicare.
Obama and fellow Democrats say Ryan's approach, which largely has been embraced by Republicans including Romney, would further expose seniors to rising healthcare costs and hasten Medicare's financial instability.
Republicans argue that their plan would preserve Medicare for future generations.
Medicare serves nearly 50 million retired and disabled Americans, and polls show stiff public resistance to the Ryan plan, with older voters opposing it by a 2-to-1 ratio.
Until now, however, there have been few tangible signs that opposition to Ryan's plan would translate into a preference for president.
A TURNAROUND FOR DEMOCRATS?
Pollsters say Obama's recent rise in popularity among older Americans could signal that Democrats are winning the advertising battle over Medicare.
That would be something of a turnaround for Democrats.
For much of the past two years, Republicans have helped to sway public opinion against Obama's signature legislative achievement, his overhaul of the healthcare system, by casting it as a government overreach that will kill jobs by raising costs for employers.
Republicans also said Obama would cut $716 billion from Medicare, an allegation rejected by Democrats and independent analysts. Even so, the Republican claims of Medicare cuts drew large numbers of seniors to the polls in the 2010 elections, when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
AARP, a grass-roots lobbying group with 37 million members aged 50 and up, backed Obama's healthcare plan against Republican critics. So it wasn't too surprising last week when Ryan, speaking at an AARP convention in New Orleans, faced a tough audience.
Less than five minutes into Ryan's speech, there were boos and cries of "No!" as he laid out the Republican message on Medicare and vowed to repeal "Obamacare."
But the data from Reuters/Ipsos polling - along with similar results from survey data of older voters by the Pew Research Center - indicate that the crowd's response in New Orleans could symbolize more than just one large group's discomfort with the Romney-Ryan ticket.
A Pew poll, conducted September 12-16 and released last week, showed Romney with only a 47 to 46 percent lead among registered voters aged 65-plus. He also trailed Obama by 7 points among people aged 45 to 64 - a huge potential voting bloc that analysts say is increasingly concerned about retirement security.
To illustrate the challenge that Romney could face in November, analysts note that Republican John McCain won 53 percent of the vote among those 65 and older in 2008, and lost to Obama with 46 percent of the overall vote.
"This is certainly a bit of a game changer," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said of the increasing support for Obama among older Americans. "Older individuals vote. They're the ones who turn up on Election Day, for sure."
Romney and Ryan are likely to need a clear victory among older voters to win the election, given Obama's advantages among other important voting groups such as women, minorities and young adults, analysts said.
"For Romney to win the election, he has to have the majority of the vote from people over 50," said Robert Blendon, a political analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If they share voters over 50, Romney's really going to take a loss here."
(Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)

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Romney, in interview, says his tax rate is "fair"

1 of 2. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

WASHINGTON | Sun Sep 23, 2012 11:31pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he thinks it is "fair" that he pays a lower tax rate on his investment income of $20 million last year than someone who made $50,000 annually.

"Yeah," Romney said in an interview aired on Sunday on the CBS television show "60 Minutes," when he was asked if he thought his relatively low rate was fair.

Democratic President Barack Obama and Romney were both interviewed on the program, in a preview of their upcoming debates ahead of the November 6 presidential election.

"I think it's the right way to encourage economic growth - to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work," the former Massachusetts governor said.

Democrats have been trying to make taxes paid by the former private equity executive a major issue in the campaign. They jumped on Romney's comment, immediately posting the video clip on the Internet and highlighting it to supporters.

Romney was asked about the 14 percent tax rate he paid on the $20 million he made on his investments in 2011. "It is a low rate," Romney said. "And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as 35 percent."

Romney released his 2011 return on Friday, which showed he paid an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. Romney pays a lower tax rate because his earnings come from investment income. Earnings from wages can be taxed at a rate of up to 35 percent.

Romney has steadfastly refused to release more than two years of his tax returns, breaking a longstanding presidential campaign tradition.

Democrats contend Romney is hiding something, arguing that the American people have the right to the information so they can make their own judgments about the finances of a potential future president.

Romney has said releasing the returns would just give his rivals' "hundreds of thousands of more pages to pick through, distort and lie about."

(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Romney promises to be more aggressive on campaign trail

1 of 4. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney takes the stage at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Ros Krasny

DENVER | Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:25pm EDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed on Sunday that he would campaign more aggressively in battleground states in the final 43 days before the November election.

The comments, made to reporters aboard his campaign plane, suggested Romney was taking to heart criticism from his own party about the amount of time he has spent raising funds versus speaking to voters.

"I think the fundraising season is probably getting a bit quieter. I would rather spend the time in key states," Romney said in his first comments to reporters since Monday.

Romney is about to kick off a week of campaigning in battleground states, starting with Colorado and Ohio.

In 2008, Obama won Colorado by 9 points over Republican John McCain. Before that, the state voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, with the exception of 1992.

He told reporters that Obama's campaign consistently mischaracterizes his positions on issues like taxes and abortion, and voters would get a better chance to learn about his positions during debates that begin on Oct 3.

Heavy advertising by Obama has coincided with a slow but noticeable decline in Romney's standing in opinion polls.

Although he is neck-and-neck with Obama in national tracking surveys, polls in specific battleground states like Ohio and Colorado, where advertising has been nonstop, show Obama with a slightly wider lead.

"I don't pay a lot of attention to the day-to-day polls. They change a great deal," Romney said. "And I know that in the coming six weeks, they're very unlikely to stay where they are today."

Sunday night's event in Denver kicks off a busier week for Romney, who spent much of Friday and Saturday raising money in Nevada and California.

Romney will visit Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday and head to Ohio Tuesday after a brief visit to New York to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative, where Obama will also speak.

His comments on the plane echoed a vow made in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS show "60 Minutes."

"I have to go across the country, particularly in the states that are closest and describe how it is I'm going to get the economy going, and how we're going to restore the economic freedom that built this economy in the first place," Romney said.

He defended his campaign as "very effective." Most of his top aides were in Los Angeles Saturday and Sunday for meetings thought to include debate preparation.

Still, many top Republicans are clamoring for a change in schedule and in tone for Romney.

"I want to see fire in the belly," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said of Romney on "Fox News Sunday." He also said he wants the former Massachusetts governor to be "lit up and ready to go."

"You've got to get off the heels and get out and charge forward," Walker said.

On Sunday night at Denver's D'Evelyn High School, a slightly hoarse Romney spoke to a sizeable but subdued crowd, keeping his focus on Obama.

"He's out of ideas, he's out of excuses and we're going to get him out of office," Romney said. "We're taking back America. We're going to win this one."

DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

Asked on "60 Minutes" whether a Romney administration would take aim at popular tax deductions such as mortgage and charitable deductions, which are used by millions of middle-income Americans, and how he would balance the budget while still cutting income taxes as suggested, the candidate demurred.

"The devil's in the details. The angel is in the policy, which is creating more jobs."

At the Denver rally, Romney ran through many of the talking points on the economy that he has used for several months, focusing on energy, trade, lower taxes for small business, job training and education.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Analysis: For Romney, some troubling signs among older voters

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida, September 20, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:36am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before his running mate was booed by a lobbying group for older Americans on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was losing support among such voters, whose backing is crucial to his hopes of winning the November 6 election.

New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.

Voting preferences among seniors could change in the final six weeks of the campaign, but the polling suggests that a series of recent episodes favoring Obama and the Democrats could be chipping away at Romney's support among older Americans.

Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate put the federal budget and Medicare at center stage in the campaign. But the debate over spending and entitlement programs that Romney seemed to be seeking has not unfolded the way Republicans wanted.

At the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, former President Bill Clinton gave a folksy but blistering critique of Ryan's plan to revamp Medicare, warning that it could leave seniors unprotected from escalating healthcare costs.

Meanwhile, Democrats' efforts to portray Romney as a wealthy former private equity executive with little sympathy for the less fortunate got a boost last week, from Romney himself.

On a secretly recorded video released by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, Romney was shown telling supporters at a $50,000-a-person fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans would never vote for him because they do not pay federal income taxes, feel they are "victims," and depend on government benefits.

Democrats accused Romney of dismissing a range of Americans, including elderly people who depend on government programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Romney's campaign rejected that, but the recent polls suggest that such claims may be resonating with Americans aged 60 and older, who for months had been the only age group to consistently support Romney over Obama.

Analysts say that if Romney cannot reverse the trend among older voters, he won't win on November 6.

"If Romney loses seniors, he loses this election, period," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy specialist at the University of North Carolina. "A bad showing nationally (among older voters) does not bode well for Florida and other states with big senior populations."

THE RYAN PLAN

Ryan's plan for Medicare would limit the program's costs by converting it from a provider of popular benefits to a system that would give future beneficiaries a financial stipend to help pay for private insurance or traditional Medicare.

Obama and fellow Democrats say Ryan's approach, which largely has been embraced by Republicans including Romney, would further expose seniors to rising healthcare costs and hasten Medicare's financial instability.

Republicans argue that their plan would preserve Medicare for future generations.

Medicare serves nearly 50 million retired and disabled Americans, and polls show stiff public resistance to the Ryan plan, with older voters opposing it by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Until now, however, there have been few tangible signs that opposition to Ryan's plan would translate into a preference for president.

A TURNAROUND FOR DEMOCRATS?

Pollsters say Obama's recent rise in popularity among older Americans could signal that Democrats are winning the advertising battle over Medicare.

That would be something of a turnaround for Democrats.

For much of the past two years, Republicans have helped to sway public opinion against Obama's signature legislative achievement, his overhaul of the healthcare system, by casting it as a government overreach that will kill jobs by raising costs for employers.

Republicans also said Obama would cut $716 billion from Medicare, an allegation rejected by Democrats and independent analysts. Even so, the Republican claims of Medicare cuts drew large numbers of seniors to the polls in the 2010 elections, when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

AARP, a grass-roots lobbying group with 37 million members aged 50 and up, backed Obama's healthcare plan against Republican critics. So it wasn't too surprising last week when Ryan, speaking at an AARP convention in New Orleans, faced a tough audience.

Less than five minutes into Ryan's speech, there were boos and cries of "No!" as he laid out the Republican message on Medicare and vowed to repeal "Obamacare."

But the data from Reuters/Ipsos polling - along with similar results from survey data of older voters by the Pew Research Center - indicate that the crowd's response in New Orleans could symbolize more than just one large group's discomfort with the Romney-Ryan ticket.

A Pew poll, conducted September 12-16 and released last week, showed Romney with only a 47 to 46 percent lead among registered voters aged 65-plus. He also trailed Obama by 7 points among people aged 45 to 64 - a huge potential voting bloc that analysts say is increasingly concerned about retirement security.

To illustrate the challenge that Romney could face in November, analysts note that Republican John McCain won 53 percent of the vote among those 65 and older in 2008, and lost to Obama with 46 percent of the overall vote.

"This is certainly a bit of a game changer," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said of the increasing support for Obama among older Americans. "Older individuals vote. They're the ones who turn up on Election Day, for sure."

Romney and Ryan are likely to need a clear victory among older voters to win the election, given Obama's advantages among other important voting groups such as women, minorities and young adults, analysts said.

"For Romney to win the election, he has to have the majority of the vote from people over 50," said Robert Blendon, a political analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If they share voters over 50, Romney's really going to take a loss here."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)

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Obama should call China a currency manipulator: Romney aide

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:36pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration should formally declare China a currency manipulator in a semi-annual report due to be released by the U.S. Treasury on October 15, a spokesman for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Monday.

"Governor Romney believes China should be labeled a currency manipulator - without delaying the report - and he will move to label them as such on Day One," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an emailed reply to a query.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department declined to say whether the Obama administration would release the politically sensitive report on time or delay it until after the November 6 election.

The Obama administration has frequently delayed the currency report, which examines the foreign exchange practices of major U.S. trading partners, as did the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Many U.S. manufacturers and lawmakers complain that China deliberately undervalues it currency to give its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.

The Obama administration has pressed China diplomatically on currency issue and can point to a significant rise in the value of China's yuan since it took office.

But it has disappointed supporters by failing to formally declare China a currency manipulator in seven consecutive Treasury reports.

U.S. law calls for the reports to released on Oct 15 and April 15. The last two reports came out on Dec. 27 and May 25.

Romney has seized on the issue to try to sway votes in union-heavy industrial states like Ohio, which could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election. He has promised to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

"China's currency manipulation has taken hundreds of thousands of jobs from the U.S. and, just like he has on so many other issues, President Obama is leading from behind on taking on China," Saul said.

The White House has taken a variety of actions against Chinese trade practices that threaten U.S. jobs, including imposing temporary tariffs on Chinese-made tires and filing cases at the World Trade Organization.

The tire tariffs, which the Obama administration says saved about 1,000 U.S. jobs, are set to expire later this week after being in force for three years. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham and Christopher Wilson)

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Picking Ryan has done little to win voters for Romney

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney shakes hands with vice presidential running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (L) after accepting the nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida August 30, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate has done little to attract voters to the Republican ticket and more think he is not qualified to be president than believe he is ready for the White House, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Monday.

Fewer than a third of registered voters, 29 percent, said the selection of Ryan made them feel more favorable toward Romney. But with 27 percent in the online poll saying it made them feel less favorable, Ryan's place on the ticket may have little effect on the November 6 election.

The results were largely split along party lines - with 46 percent of Democrats saying Ryan's choice made them less favorable, compared with 8 percent who said the opposite. And 56 percent of Republicans felt more favorable, versus 6 percent.

But Ryan has not swayed many political independents, the voters expected to play a decisive role in the election. Eighteen percent felt more favorable and 13 percent less so.

"Overall, he doesn't really appear to be impacting the top of the ticket much," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "He's still a bit of an unknown entity."

The survey was conducted September 20-24, a time when some Republican commentators have been pressing Romney's campaign to do more to promote Ryan, who is seen as a proponent of big fiscal ideas, like a plan to overhaul the government Medicare health insurance program for retirees.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that some conservatives think Romney's campaign has been too cautious by avoiding Ryan's big ideas and hoping that President Barack Obama will defeat himself.

Polls have given Obama a steady nationwide lead over Romney since the Democratic convention early this month. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll on Monday had Obama leading by 49 percent to 43 percent for Romney among likely voters.

"Obama's now been healthfully in the lead since the convention. If he can sustain this for another 45 days, it's done," Clark said.

BIDEN BENEFITS FROM INCUMBENCY

Forty-four percent of registered voters think Ryan is not qualified to be president, compared with 29 percent who feel he would be ready to step into Romney's shoes if necessary, the survey found.

A larger percentage thought that Joe Biden, 69, the incumbent Democratic vice president, is ready for the Oval Office. Biden led 43 percent to 36 percent, thanks to huge support among Democrats.

But more Democrats had faith in Biden, a former Delaware senator who is well-known as the incumbent, than Republicans had in the 42-year-old Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman who is chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Among Democrats, 74 percent said Biden was more qualified, versus 8 percent who chose Ryan and 18 percent who did not know. Seventy percent of Republicans favored Ryan, compared with 13 percent for Biden and 18 percent who did not know.

The numbers were even among independents, with 30 percent each for Biden and Ryan, and 40 percent who did not know.

More registered voters have heard of Ryan than before Romney selected him, but he still falls short in national name recognition. Only 56 percent of registered voters said they were familiar with Ryan, versus mid-August's 35 percent.

Their opinions of him are split evenly. Forty-nine percent view Ryan favorably, versus 51 percent who don't, divided largely along party lines. Among independents, 48 percent view him favorably and 52 percent don't, the poll showed.

The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of 3.1 percentage points for the 1,313 registered voters surveyed and 3.5 percentage points for the 1,095 likely voters.

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Obama should call China a currency manipulator: Romney aide

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:36pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration should formally declare China a currency manipulator in a semi-annual report due to be released by the U.S. Treasury on October 15, a spokesman for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Monday.

"Governor Romney believes China should be labeled a currency manipulator - without delaying the report - and he will move to label them as such on Day One," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an emailed reply to a query.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department declined to say whether the Obama administration would release the politically sensitive report on time or delay it until after the November 6 election.

The Obama administration has frequently delayed the currency report, which examines the foreign exchange practices of major U.S. trading partners, as did the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Many U.S. manufacturers and lawmakers complain that China deliberately undervalues it currency to give its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.

The Obama administration has pressed China diplomatically on currency issue and can point to a significant rise in the value of China's yuan since it took office.

But it has disappointed supporters by failing to formally declare China a currency manipulator in seven consecutive Treasury reports.

U.S. law calls for the reports to released on Oct 15 and April 15. The last two reports came out on Dec. 27 and May 25.

Romney has seized on the issue to try to sway votes in union-heavy industrial states like Ohio, which could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election. He has promised to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

"China's currency manipulation has taken hundreds of thousands of jobs from the U.S. and, just like he has on so many other issues, President Obama is leading from behind on taking on China," Saul said.

The White House has taken a variety of actions against Chinese trade practices that threaten U.S. jobs, including imposing temporary tariffs on Chinese-made tires and filing cases at the World Trade Organization.

The tire tariffs, which the Obama administration says saved about 1,000 U.S. jobs, are set to expire later this week after being in force for three years. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham and Christopher Wilson)

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Obama should call China a currency manipulator: Romney aide

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:36pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration should formally declare China a currency manipulator in a semi-annual report due to be released by the U.S. Treasury on October 15, a spokesman for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Monday.

"Governor Romney believes China should be labeled a currency manipulator - without delaying the report - and he will move to label them as such on Day One," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an emailed reply to a query.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department declined to say whether the Obama administration would release the politically sensitive report on time or delay it until after the November 6 election.

The Obama administration has frequently delayed the currency report, which examines the foreign exchange practices of major U.S. trading partners, as did the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

Many U.S. manufacturers and lawmakers complain that China deliberately undervalues it currency to give its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.

The Obama administration has pressed China diplomatically on currency issue and can point to a significant rise in the value of China's yuan since it took office.

But it has disappointed supporters by failing to formally declare China a currency manipulator in seven consecutive Treasury reports.

U.S. law calls for the reports to released on Oct 15 and April 15. The last two reports came out on Dec. 27 and May 25.

Romney has seized on the issue to try to sway votes in union-heavy industrial states like Ohio, which could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election. He has promised to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

"China's currency manipulation has taken hundreds of thousands of jobs from the U.S. and, just like he has on so many other issues, President Obama is leading from behind on taking on China," Saul said.

The White House has taken a variety of actions against Chinese trade practices that threaten U.S. jobs, including imposing temporary tariffs on Chinese-made tires and filing cases at the World Trade Organization.

The tire tariffs, which the Obama administration says saved about 1,000 U.S. jobs, are set to expire later this week after being in force for three years. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham and Christopher Wilson)

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Analysis: For Romney, some troubling signs among older voters

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida, September 20, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:36am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before his running mate was booed by a lobbying group for older Americans on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was losing support among such voters, whose backing is crucial to his hopes of winning the November 6 election.

New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.

Voting preferences among seniors could change in the final six weeks of the campaign, but the polling suggests that a series of recent episodes favoring Obama and the Democrats could be chipping away at Romney's support among older Americans.

Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate put the federal budget and Medicare at center stage in the campaign. But the debate over spending and entitlement programs that Romney seemed to be seeking has not unfolded the way Republicans wanted.

At the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, former President Bill Clinton gave a folksy but blistering critique of Ryan's plan to revamp Medicare, warning that it could leave seniors unprotected from escalating healthcare costs.

Meanwhile, Democrats' efforts to portray Romney as a wealthy former private equity executive with little sympathy for the less fortunate got a boost last week, from Romney himself.

On a secretly recorded video released by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, Romney was shown telling supporters at a $50,000-a-person fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans would never vote for him because they do not pay federal income taxes, feel they are "victims," and depend on government benefits.

Democrats accused Romney of dismissing a range of Americans, including elderly people who depend on government programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Romney's campaign rejected that, but the recent polls suggest that such claims may be resonating with Americans aged 60 and older, who for months had been the only age group to consistently support Romney over Obama.

Analysts say that if Romney cannot reverse the trend among older voters, he won't win on November 6.

"If Romney loses seniors, he loses this election, period," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy specialist at the University of North Carolina. "A bad showing nationally (among older voters) does not bode well for Florida and other states with big senior populations."

THE RYAN PLAN

Ryan's plan for Medicare would limit the program's costs by converting it from a provider of popular benefits to a system that would give future beneficiaries a financial stipend to help pay for private insurance or traditional Medicare.

Obama and fellow Democrats say Ryan's approach, which largely has been embraced by Republicans including Romney, would further expose seniors to rising healthcare costs and hasten Medicare's financial instability.

Republicans argue that their plan would preserve Medicare for future generations.

Medicare serves nearly 50 million retired and disabled Americans, and polls show stiff public resistance to the Ryan plan, with older voters opposing it by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Until now, however, there have been few tangible signs that opposition to Ryan's plan would translate into a preference for president.

A TURNAROUND FOR DEMOCRATS?

Pollsters say Obama's recent rise in popularity among older Americans could signal that Democrats are winning the advertising battle over Medicare.

That would be something of a turnaround for Democrats.

For much of the past two years, Republicans have helped to sway public opinion against Obama's signature legislative achievement, his overhaul of the healthcare system, by casting it as a government overreach that will kill jobs by raising costs for employers.

Republicans also said Obama would cut $716 billion from Medicare, an allegation rejected by Democrats and independent analysts. Even so, the Republican claims of Medicare cuts drew large numbers of seniors to the polls in the 2010 elections, when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

AARP, a grass-roots lobbying group with 37 million members aged 50 and up, backed Obama's healthcare plan against Republican critics. So it wasn't too surprising last week when Ryan, speaking at an AARP convention in New Orleans, faced a tough audience.

Less than five minutes into Ryan's speech, there were boos and cries of "No!" as he laid out the Republican message on Medicare and vowed to repeal "Obamacare."

But the data from Reuters/Ipsos polling - along with similar results from survey data of older voters by the Pew Research Center - indicate that the crowd's response in New Orleans could symbolize more than just one large group's discomfort with the Romney-Ryan ticket.

A Pew poll, conducted September 12-16 and released last week, showed Romney with only a 47 to 46 percent lead among registered voters aged 65-plus. He also trailed Obama by 7 points among people aged 45 to 64 - a huge potential voting bloc that analysts say is increasingly concerned about retirement security.

To illustrate the challenge that Romney could face in November, analysts note that Republican John McCain won 53 percent of the vote among those 65 and older in 2008, and lost to Obama with 46 percent of the overall vote.

"This is certainly a bit of a game changer," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said of the increasing support for Obama among older Americans. "Older individuals vote. They're the ones who turn up on Election Day, for sure."

Romney and Ryan are likely to need a clear victory among older voters to win the election, given Obama's advantages among other important voting groups such as women, minorities and young adults, analysts said.

"For Romney to win the election, he has to have the majority of the vote from people over 50," said Robert Blendon, a political analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If they share voters over 50, Romney's really going to take a loss here."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)

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Analysis: For Romney, some troubling signs among older voters

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida, September 20, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:36am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before his running mate was booed by a lobbying group for older Americans on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was losing support among such voters, whose backing is crucial to his hopes of winning the November 6 election.

New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.

Voting preferences among seniors could change in the final six weeks of the campaign, but the polling suggests that a series of recent episodes favoring Obama and the Democrats could be chipping away at Romney's support among older Americans.

Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate put the federal budget and Medicare at center stage in the campaign. But the debate over spending and entitlement programs that Romney seemed to be seeking has not unfolded the way Republicans wanted.

At the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, former President Bill Clinton gave a folksy but blistering critique of Ryan's plan to revamp Medicare, warning that it could leave seniors unprotected from escalating healthcare costs.

Meanwhile, Democrats' efforts to portray Romney as a wealthy former private equity executive with little sympathy for the less fortunate got a boost last week, from Romney himself.

On a secretly recorded video released by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, Romney was shown telling supporters at a $50,000-a-person fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans would never vote for him because they do not pay federal income taxes, feel they are "victims," and depend on government benefits.

Democrats accused Romney of dismissing a range of Americans, including elderly people who depend on government programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Romney's campaign rejected that, but the recent polls suggest that such claims may be resonating with Americans aged 60 and older, who for months had been the only age group to consistently support Romney over Obama.

Analysts say that if Romney cannot reverse the trend among older voters, he won't win on November 6.

"If Romney loses seniors, he loses this election, period," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy specialist at the University of North Carolina. "A bad showing nationally (among older voters) does not bode well for Florida and other states with big senior populations."

THE RYAN PLAN

Ryan's plan for Medicare would limit the program's costs by converting it from a provider of popular benefits to a system that would give future beneficiaries a financial stipend to help pay for private insurance or traditional Medicare.

Obama and fellow Democrats say Ryan's approach, which largely has been embraced by Republicans including Romney, would further expose seniors to rising healthcare costs and hasten Medicare's financial instability.

Republicans argue that their plan would preserve Medicare for future generations.

Medicare serves nearly 50 million retired and disabled Americans, and polls show stiff public resistance to the Ryan plan, with older voters opposing it by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Until now, however, there have been few tangible signs that opposition to Ryan's plan would translate into a preference for president.

A TURNAROUND FOR DEMOCRATS?

Pollsters say Obama's recent rise in popularity among older Americans could signal that Democrats are winning the advertising battle over Medicare.

That would be something of a turnaround for Democrats.

For much of the past two years, Republicans have helped to sway public opinion against Obama's signature legislative achievement, his overhaul of the healthcare system, by casting it as a government overreach that will kill jobs by raising costs for employers.

Republicans also said Obama would cut $716 billion from Medicare, an allegation rejected by Democrats and independent analysts. Even so, the Republican claims of Medicare cuts drew large numbers of seniors to the polls in the 2010 elections, when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

AARP, a grass-roots lobbying group with 37 million members aged 50 and up, backed Obama's healthcare plan against Republican critics. So it wasn't too surprising last week when Ryan, speaking at an AARP convention in New Orleans, faced a tough audience.

Less than five minutes into Ryan's speech, there were boos and cries of "No!" as he laid out the Republican message on Medicare and vowed to repeal "Obamacare."

But the data from Reuters/Ipsos polling - along with similar results from survey data of older voters by the Pew Research Center - indicate that the crowd's response in New Orleans could symbolize more than just one large group's discomfort with the Romney-Ryan ticket.

A Pew poll, conducted September 12-16 and released last week, showed Romney with only a 47 to 46 percent lead among registered voters aged 65-plus. He also trailed Obama by 7 points among people aged 45 to 64 - a huge potential voting bloc that analysts say is increasingly concerned about retirement security.

To illustrate the challenge that Romney could face in November, analysts note that Republican John McCain won 53 percent of the vote among those 65 and older in 2008, and lost to Obama with 46 percent of the overall vote.

"This is certainly a bit of a game changer," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said of the increasing support for Obama among older Americans. "Older individuals vote. They're the ones who turn up on Election Day, for sure."

Romney and Ryan are likely to need a clear victory among older voters to win the election, given Obama's advantages among other important voting groups such as women, minorities and young adults, analysts said.

"For Romney to win the election, he has to have the majority of the vote from people over 50," said Robert Blendon, a political analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If they share voters over 50, Romney's really going to take a loss here."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)

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Romney promises to be more aggressive on campaign trail

1 of 4. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney takes the stage at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Ros Krasny

DENVER | Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:25pm EDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed on Sunday that he would campaign more aggressively in battleground states in the final 43 days before the November election.

The comments, made to reporters aboard his campaign plane, suggested Romney was taking to heart criticism from his own party about the amount of time he has spent raising funds versus speaking to voters.

"I think the fundraising season is probably getting a bit quieter. I would rather spend the time in key states," Romney said in his first comments to reporters since Monday.

Romney is about to kick off a week of campaigning in battleground states, starting with Colorado and Ohio.

In 2008, Obama won Colorado by 9 points over Republican John McCain. Before that, the state voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, with the exception of 1992.

He told reporters that Obama's campaign consistently mischaracterizes his positions on issues like taxes and abortion, and voters would get a better chance to learn about his positions during debates that begin on Oct 3.

Heavy advertising by Obama has coincided with a slow but noticeable decline in Romney's standing in opinion polls.

Although he is neck-and-neck with Obama in national tracking surveys, polls in specific battleground states like Ohio and Colorado, where advertising has been nonstop, show Obama with a slightly wider lead.

"I don't pay a lot of attention to the day-to-day polls. They change a great deal," Romney said. "And I know that in the coming six weeks, they're very unlikely to stay where they are today."

Sunday night's event in Denver kicks off a busier week for Romney, who spent much of Friday and Saturday raising money in Nevada and California.

Romney will visit Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday and head to Ohio Tuesday after a brief visit to New York to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative, where Obama will also speak.

His comments on the plane echoed a vow made in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS show "60 Minutes."

"I have to go across the country, particularly in the states that are closest and describe how it is I'm going to get the economy going, and how we're going to restore the economic freedom that built this economy in the first place," Romney said.

He defended his campaign as "very effective." Most of his top aides were in Los Angeles Saturday and Sunday for meetings thought to include debate preparation.

Still, many top Republicans are clamoring for a change in schedule and in tone for Romney.

"I want to see fire in the belly," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said of Romney on "Fox News Sunday." He also said he wants the former Massachusetts governor to be "lit up and ready to go."

"You've got to get off the heels and get out and charge forward," Walker said.

On Sunday night at Denver's D'Evelyn High School, a slightly hoarse Romney spoke to a sizeable but subdued crowd, keeping his focus on Obama.

"He's out of ideas, he's out of excuses and we're going to get him out of office," Romney said. "We're taking back America. We're going to win this one."

DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

Asked on "60 Minutes" whether a Romney administration would take aim at popular tax deductions such as mortgage and charitable deductions, which are used by millions of middle-income Americans, and how he would balance the budget while still cutting income taxes as suggested, the candidate demurred.

"The devil's in the details. The angel is in the policy, which is creating more jobs."

At the Denver rally, Romney ran through many of the talking points on the economy that he has used for several months, focusing on energy, trade, lower taxes for small business, job training and education.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Picking Ryan has done little to win voters for Romney

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney shakes hands with vice presidential running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (L) after accepting the nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida August 30, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate has done little to attract voters to the Republican ticket and more think he is not qualified to be president than believe he is ready for the White House, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Monday.

Fewer than a third of registered voters, 29 percent, said the selection of Ryan made them feel more favorable toward Romney. But with 27 percent in the online poll saying it made them feel less favorable, Ryan's place on the ticket may have little effect on the November 6 election.

The results were largely split along party lines - with 46 percent of Democrats saying Ryan's choice made them less favorable, compared with 8 percent who said the opposite. And 56 percent of Republicans felt more favorable, versus 6 percent.

But Ryan has not swayed many political independents, the voters expected to play a decisive role in the election. Eighteen percent felt more favorable and 13 percent less so.

"Overall, he doesn't really appear to be impacting the top of the ticket much," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "He's still a bit of an unknown entity."

The survey was conducted September 20-24, a time when some Republican commentators have been pressing Romney's campaign to do more to promote Ryan, who is seen as a proponent of big fiscal ideas, like a plan to overhaul the government Medicare health insurance program for retirees.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that some conservatives think Romney's campaign has been too cautious by avoiding Ryan's big ideas and hoping that President Barack Obama will defeat himself.

Polls have given Obama a steady nationwide lead over Romney since the Democratic convention early this month. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll on Monday had Obama leading by 49 percent to 43 percent for Romney among likely voters.

"Obama's now been healthfully in the lead since the convention. If he can sustain this for another 45 days, it's done," Clark said.

BIDEN BENEFITS FROM INCUMBENCY

Forty-four percent of registered voters think Ryan is not qualified to be president, compared with 29 percent who feel he would be ready to step into Romney's shoes if necessary, the survey found.

A larger percentage thought that Joe Biden, 69, the incumbent Democratic vice president, is ready for the Oval Office. Biden led 43 percent to 36 percent, thanks to huge support among Democrats.

But more Democrats had faith in Biden, a former Delaware senator who is well-known as the incumbent, than Republicans had in the 42-year-old Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman who is chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Among Democrats, 74 percent said Biden was more qualified, versus 8 percent who chose Ryan and 18 percent who did not know. Seventy percent of Republicans favored Ryan, compared with 13 percent for Biden and 18 percent who did not know.

The numbers were even among independents, with 30 percent each for Biden and Ryan, and 40 percent who did not know.

More registered voters have heard of Ryan than before Romney selected him, but he still falls short in national name recognition. Only 56 percent of registered voters said they were familiar with Ryan, versus mid-August's 35 percent.

Their opinions of him are split evenly. Forty-nine percent view Ryan favorably, versus 51 percent who don't, divided largely along party lines. Among independents, 48 percent view him favorably and 52 percent don't, the poll showed.

The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of 3.1 percentage points for the 1,313 registered voters surveyed and 3.5 percentage points for the 1,095 likely voters.

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Romney, in interview, says his tax rate is "fair"

1 of 2. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

WASHINGTON | Sun Sep 23, 2012 11:31pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he thinks it is "fair" that he pays a lower tax rate on his investment income of $20 million last year than someone who made $50,000 annually.

"Yeah," Romney said in an interview aired on Sunday on the CBS television show "60 Minutes," when he was asked if he thought his relatively low rate was fair.

Democratic President Barack Obama and Romney were both interviewed on the program, in a preview of their upcoming debates ahead of the November 6 presidential election.

"I think it's the right way to encourage economic growth - to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work," the former Massachusetts governor said.

Democrats have been trying to make taxes paid by the former private equity executive a major issue in the campaign. They jumped on Romney's comment, immediately posting the video clip on the Internet and highlighting it to supporters.

Romney was asked about the 14 percent tax rate he paid on the $20 million he made on his investments in 2011. "It is a low rate," Romney said. "And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as 35 percent."

Romney released his 2011 return on Friday, which showed he paid an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. Romney pays a lower tax rate because his earnings come from investment income. Earnings from wages can be taxed at a rate of up to 35 percent.

Romney has steadfastly refused to release more than two years of his tax returns, breaking a longstanding presidential campaign tradition.

Democrats contend Romney is hiding something, arguing that the American people have the right to the information so they can make their own judgments about the finances of a potential future president.

Romney has said releasing the returns would just give his rivals' "hundreds of thousands of more pages to pick through, distort and lie about."

(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Romney promises to be more aggressive on campaign trail

1 of 4. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney takes the stage at a campaign rally in Denver, Colorado September 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Ros Krasny

DENVER | Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:25pm EDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed on Sunday that he would campaign more aggressively in battleground states in the final 43 days before the November election.

The comments, made to reporters aboard his campaign plane, suggested Romney was taking to heart criticism from his own party about the amount of time he has spent raising funds versus speaking to voters.

"I think the fundraising season is probably getting a bit quieter. I would rather spend the time in key states," Romney said in his first comments to reporters since Monday.

Romney is about to kick off a week of campaigning in battleground states, starting with Colorado and Ohio.

In 2008, Obama won Colorado by 9 points over Republican John McCain. Before that, the state voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, with the exception of 1992.

He told reporters that Obama's campaign consistently mischaracterizes his positions on issues like taxes and abortion, and voters would get a better chance to learn about his positions during debates that begin on Oct 3.

Heavy advertising by Obama has coincided with a slow but noticeable decline in Romney's standing in opinion polls.

Although he is neck-and-neck with Obama in national tracking surveys, polls in specific battleground states like Ohio and Colorado, where advertising has been nonstop, show Obama with a slightly wider lead.

"I don't pay a lot of attention to the day-to-day polls. They change a great deal," Romney said. "And I know that in the coming six weeks, they're very unlikely to stay where they are today."

Sunday night's event in Denver kicks off a busier week for Romney, who spent much of Friday and Saturday raising money in Nevada and California.

Romney will visit Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday and head to Ohio Tuesday after a brief visit to New York to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative, where Obama will also speak.

His comments on the plane echoed a vow made in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS show "60 Minutes."

"I have to go across the country, particularly in the states that are closest and describe how it is I'm going to get the economy going, and how we're going to restore the economic freedom that built this economy in the first place," Romney said.

He defended his campaign as "very effective." Most of his top aides were in Los Angeles Saturday and Sunday for meetings thought to include debate preparation.

Still, many top Republicans are clamoring for a change in schedule and in tone for Romney.

"I want to see fire in the belly," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said of Romney on "Fox News Sunday." He also said he wants the former Massachusetts governor to be "lit up and ready to go."

"You've got to get off the heels and get out and charge forward," Walker said.

On Sunday night at Denver's D'Evelyn High School, a slightly hoarse Romney spoke to a sizeable but subdued crowd, keeping his focus on Obama.

"He's out of ideas, he's out of excuses and we're going to get him out of office," Romney said. "We're taking back America. We're going to win this one."

DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

Asked on "60 Minutes" whether a Romney administration would take aim at popular tax deductions such as mortgage and charitable deductions, which are used by millions of middle-income Americans, and how he would balance the budget while still cutting income taxes as suggested, the candidate demurred.

"The devil's in the details. The angel is in the policy, which is creating more jobs."

At the Denver rally, Romney ran through many of the talking points on the economy that he has used for several months, focusing on energy, trade, lower taxes for small business, job training and education.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Picking Ryan has done little to win voters for Romney

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney shakes hands with vice presidential running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (L) after accepting the nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida August 30, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate has done little to attract voters to the Republican ticket and more think he is not qualified to be president than believe he is ready for the White House, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Monday.

Fewer than a third of registered voters, 29 percent, said the selection of Ryan made them feel more favorable toward Romney. But with 27 percent in the online poll saying it made them feel less favorable, Ryan's place on the ticket may have little effect on the November 6 election.

The results were largely split along party lines - with 46 percent of Democrats saying Ryan's choice made them less favorable, compared with 8 percent who said the opposite. And 56 percent of Republicans felt more favorable, versus 6 percent.

But Ryan has not swayed many political independents, the voters expected to play a decisive role in the election. Eighteen percent felt more favorable and 13 percent less so.

"Overall, he doesn't really appear to be impacting the top of the ticket much," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "He's still a bit of an unknown entity."

The survey was conducted September 20-24, a time when some Republican commentators have been pressing Romney's campaign to do more to promote Ryan, who is seen as a proponent of big fiscal ideas, like a plan to overhaul the government Medicare health insurance program for retirees.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that some conservatives think Romney's campaign has been too cautious by avoiding Ryan's big ideas and hoping that President Barack Obama will defeat himself.

Polls have given Obama a steady nationwide lead over Romney since the Democratic convention early this month. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll on Monday had Obama leading by 49 percent to 43 percent for Romney among likely voters.

"Obama's now been healthfully in the lead since the convention. If he can sustain this for another 45 days, it's done," Clark said.

BIDEN BENEFITS FROM INCUMBENCY

Forty-four percent of registered voters think Ryan is not qualified to be president, compared with 29 percent who feel he would be ready to step into Romney's shoes if necessary, the survey found.

A larger percentage thought that Joe Biden, 69, the incumbent Democratic vice president, is ready for the Oval Office. Biden led 43 percent to 36 percent, thanks to huge support among Democrats.

But more Democrats had faith in Biden, a former Delaware senator who is well-known as the incumbent, than Republicans had in the 42-year-old Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman who is chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Among Democrats, 74 percent said Biden was more qualified, versus 8 percent who chose Ryan and 18 percent who did not know. Seventy percent of Republicans favored Ryan, compared with 13 percent for Biden and 18 percent who did not know.

The numbers were even among independents, with 30 percent each for Biden and Ryan, and 40 percent who did not know.

More registered voters have heard of Ryan than before Romney selected him, but he still falls short in national name recognition. Only 56 percent of registered voters said they were familiar with Ryan, versus mid-August's 35 percent.

Their opinions of him are split evenly. Forty-nine percent view Ryan favorably, versus 51 percent who don't, divided largely along party lines. Among independents, 48 percent view him favorably and 52 percent don't, the poll showed.

The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of 3.1 percentage points for the 1,313 registered voters surveyed and 3.5 percentage points for the 1,095 likely voters.

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Analysis: For Romney, some troubling signs among older voters

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida, September 20, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:36am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even before his running mate was booed by a lobbying group for older Americans on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was losing support among such voters, whose backing is crucial to his hopes of winning the November 6 election.

New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

Romney's double-digit advantages among older voters on the issues of healthcare and Medicare - the nation's health insurance program for those over 65 and the disabled - also have evaporated, and Obama has begun to build an advantage in both areas.

Voting preferences among seniors could change in the final six weeks of the campaign, but the polling suggests that a series of recent episodes favoring Obama and the Democrats could be chipping away at Romney's support among older Americans.

Romney's selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate put the federal budget and Medicare at center stage in the campaign. But the debate over spending and entitlement programs that Romney seemed to be seeking has not unfolded the way Republicans wanted.

At the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 5, former President Bill Clinton gave a folksy but blistering critique of Ryan's plan to revamp Medicare, warning that it could leave seniors unprotected from escalating healthcare costs.

Meanwhile, Democrats' efforts to portray Romney as a wealthy former private equity executive with little sympathy for the less fortunate got a boost last week, from Romney himself.

On a secretly recorded video released by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, Romney was shown telling supporters at a $50,000-a-person fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans would never vote for him because they do not pay federal income taxes, feel they are "victims," and depend on government benefits.

Democrats accused Romney of dismissing a range of Americans, including elderly people who depend on government programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Romney's campaign rejected that, but the recent polls suggest that such claims may be resonating with Americans aged 60 and older, who for months had been the only age group to consistently support Romney over Obama.

Analysts say that if Romney cannot reverse the trend among older voters, he won't win on November 6.

"If Romney loses seniors, he loses this election, period," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy specialist at the University of North Carolina. "A bad showing nationally (among older voters) does not bode well for Florida and other states with big senior populations."

THE RYAN PLAN

Ryan's plan for Medicare would limit the program's costs by converting it from a provider of popular benefits to a system that would give future beneficiaries a financial stipend to help pay for private insurance or traditional Medicare.

Obama and fellow Democrats say Ryan's approach, which largely has been embraced by Republicans including Romney, would further expose seniors to rising healthcare costs and hasten Medicare's financial instability.

Republicans argue that their plan would preserve Medicare for future generations.

Medicare serves nearly 50 million retired and disabled Americans, and polls show stiff public resistance to the Ryan plan, with older voters opposing it by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Until now, however, there have been few tangible signs that opposition to Ryan's plan would translate into a preference for president.

A TURNAROUND FOR DEMOCRATS?

Pollsters say Obama's recent rise in popularity among older Americans could signal that Democrats are winning the advertising battle over Medicare.

That would be something of a turnaround for Democrats.

For much of the past two years, Republicans have helped to sway public opinion against Obama's signature legislative achievement, his overhaul of the healthcare system, by casting it as a government overreach that will kill jobs by raising costs for employers.

Republicans also said Obama would cut $716 billion from Medicare, an allegation rejected by Democrats and independent analysts. Even so, the Republican claims of Medicare cuts drew large numbers of seniors to the polls in the 2010 elections, when Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

AARP, a grass-roots lobbying group with 37 million members aged 50 and up, backed Obama's healthcare plan against Republican critics. So it wasn't too surprising last week when Ryan, speaking at an AARP convention in New Orleans, faced a tough audience.

Less than five minutes into Ryan's speech, there were boos and cries of "No!" as he laid out the Republican message on Medicare and vowed to repeal "Obamacare."

But the data from Reuters/Ipsos polling - along with similar results from survey data of older voters by the Pew Research Center - indicate that the crowd's response in New Orleans could symbolize more than just one large group's discomfort with the Romney-Ryan ticket.

A Pew poll, conducted September 12-16 and released last week, showed Romney with only a 47 to 46 percent lead among registered voters aged 65-plus. He also trailed Obama by 7 points among people aged 45 to 64 - a huge potential voting bloc that analysts say is increasingly concerned about retirement security.

To illustrate the challenge that Romney could face in November, analysts note that Republican John McCain won 53 percent of the vote among those 65 and older in 2008, and lost to Obama with 46 percent of the overall vote.

"This is certainly a bit of a game changer," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said of the increasing support for Obama among older Americans. "Older individuals vote. They're the ones who turn up on Election Day, for sure."

Romney and Ryan are likely to need a clear victory among older voters to win the election, given Obama's advantages among other important voting groups such as women, minorities and young adults, analysts said.

"For Romney to win the election, he has to have the majority of the vote from people over 50," said Robert Blendon, a political analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If they share voters over 50, Romney's really going to take a loss here."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)

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