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Poll: 42 percent support Obama auto approach over Romney's
Forty-two percent of registered voters support President Obama’s handling of the U.S. auto industry over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The Obama administration’s handling of the $80 billion bailout of two of the three major U.S. auto companies has emerged as a central issue in the final weeks of the contentious race between Obama and Romney as their campaigns increasingly turn their focus to Ohio.
A Reuters/Ipsos conducted after Obama and Romney had a heated exchange about the auto bailout in their third and final debate Monday night showed Obama leading Romney 42 to 29 percent on their strategies for handling the car companies.
The poll also found Obama leading Romney on auto industry issues among independent voters, by 30 to 12 percent.
The auto bailouts were first initiated under former President George W. Bush, but Obama has hammered Romney for a 2008 op-ed he wrote in the New York Times titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”
Romney has argued that he was suggesting a “managed bankruptcy” for the auto industry, but Obama has countered that only the federal government was able to float loans to the car companies during the economic panic of 2008.
The full poll can be read here.
