Obama slams Romney over economy

TOLEDO, Ohio - Agence France-Presse

U.S. President Barack Obama told Americans to punt away Mitt Romney’s economic game plan, in a swipe at his Republican rival on the road to this week’s Democratic National Convention.

New polling data meanwhile suggested that Romney failed to score a significant “bounce” from his own convention in Florida last week, reflecting the tight race to November’s election and a dearth of undecided voters.

“The problem is everybody has already seen his economic playbook, we know what’s in it,” Obama said, accusing Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan of plotting middle class tax hikes and cuts in health care for the elderly. “I have got one piece of advice for you about the Romney-Ryan game plan, Ohio, punt it away, it won’t work, it won’t win the game. You don’t need that coach, that’s a losing season,” Obama said.

 Romney, who was in Ohio on Sept. 1 on the first day of the U.S. college football season, portrayed Obama as the coach of a losing team, and suggested himself as an alternative. Forty percent of adults asked by Gallup said the convention had made them more likely to vote for Romney in November’s election, but a similar 38 percent said events in Florida made them less likely to back him.

Obama led the man trying to deny him a second term by 47 percent to 46 percent in Gallup’s latest daily tracking poll.