Improving US economy is Romney's latest rival
Source: Agencies |
January 7, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
REPUBLICAN front-runner Mitt Romney has another emerging contender as he hopes to challenge President Barack Obama in November: The improving US economy.
A new report released yesterday says the US unemployment rate has hit its lowest level in nearly three years at 8.5 percent, after a burst of hiring in December. With the economy the focus of this year's presidential campaign, Romney has been hammering away not at his ever-changing cast of Republican rivals but at Obama, whose fate has been linked to the slow recovery from the Great Recession.
Obama still could face voters in November with the highest unemployment rate of a sitting president seeking election since World War II. Unemployment was 7.8 percent when Obama took office in January 2009.
But Obama could benefit if unemployment continues to fall. History suggests that presidents' re-election prospects depend less on the unemployment rate itself than on the rate's direction during the year or two before Election Day.
Romney's Republican presidential rivals are meanwhile blasting him for being too moderate ahead of Tuesday's primary election.
A new report released yesterday says the US unemployment rate has hit its lowest level in nearly three years at 8.5 percent, after a burst of hiring in December. With the economy the focus of this year's presidential campaign, Romney has been hammering away not at his ever-changing cast of Republican rivals but at Obama, whose fate has been linked to the slow recovery from the Great Recession.
Obama still could face voters in November with the highest unemployment rate of a sitting president seeking election since World War II. Unemployment was 7.8 percent when Obama took office in January 2009.
But Obama could benefit if unemployment continues to fall. History suggests that presidents' re-election prospects depend less on the unemployment rate itself than on the rate's direction during the year or two before Election Day.
Romney's Republican presidential rivals are meanwhile blasting him for being too moderate ahead of Tuesday's primary election.
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