More evidence that the roof is caving in on Mitt Romney came today from a poll of small business owners conducted by George Washington University School of Political Management, which found Obama leading Romney, 47%-39%.
Not only is Obama leading Romney, but the George Washington University poll also found that small business owners thought President Obama was more supportive of them than Mitt Romney by 39%-31% margin, with 28% undecided.
6,415 small business owners were asked what their single most important issue was in their choice for president. Forty percent of them responded the economy and jobs. Fourteen percent listed corruption/honesty/ethics in government, six percent responded social/moral issues, and five percent said it was beating Romney/supporting Obama/electing Democrats. Obamacare, beating Obama/electing Romney/supporting Republicans, and the budget deficit all tied at 5%. Two staples of the Romney campaign, taxes was mentioned by 3%, and government regulation was not mentioned at all. The three most important issues to small business owners were unemployment and the job market (26%), the federal budget deficit (16%), and healthcare costs (10%).
Small business owners listed self-employment taxes, the cost of gas, healthcare costs, and personal income taxes to be the biggest burdens. President Obama has cut taxes for small businesses anywhere from 16 to 18 times depending on how a small business tax cut is defined. In contrast Mitt Romney came up with a slogan, but the benefits of his tax plan are designed for corporations and people at the top. Romney’s plan would give the biggest corporations a $1 trillion tax cut.
As a businessman Romney should have natural appeal to small business owners and should be running away from Obama, but he is losing to the president. His attempt to mobilize small business behind him with the class warfare battle cry we built that fell flat and has vanished from his campaign.
Republicans love to claim that Obama is unfit to be president because he has never run a business, but small business owners are supporting Obama because he understands their concerns. Mitt Romney has no idea what it is like to run a small business in today’s economy, and even worse, he appears to have no interest in learning.
This poll was taken before the hidden camera video that gave Americans their first look at how Mitt Romney really feels about them, but it looks like the roof has been caving in on Romney for a few weeks now. Romney’s support seems limited to conservative billionaires, Mormons, and rank and file Republicans who are stuck with him.
Obama’s message that the economy has gotten better from where it was, but isn’t where it needs to be seems to be resonating with many small business owners. This election is boiling down to a matter of trust, and like the rest of the country, small business owners don’t trust Mitt Romney to support them.
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Rocky in texas said...
Sep. 18th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
People are sick and tired of Swiss Mitt/Lying Ryan non stop bullshit tour…
They are finding out that we are not that tupid.
Let’s see those 12 years of complete tax returns Mitt…
Just like your Daddy said!
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Heidi
Sep. 18th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
I have done hiring for two major companies as a management person.
We got tax breaks for hiring, people of color, women, vets. We got tax breaks for offering tutition rembursiment to those who went back to school full time and maintained a 2.5 GPA.
Honeywell gets taxes break as a defense contractor. There are many companies that have benefited from an Obama Presidency, why would people or small businss what to give that up.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Sep. 18th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Any person in business had better be concerned with jobs. Its what keeps them in business. Anyone who knows Romney wants more war and higher taxes on the middle class has to understand that is a death knell to their sales
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EDC70
Sep. 18th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
As soon as America (aka Romney as Prez) starts going to war with another country, the world stops buying American. Plain and simple as that. That is why businesses started to fail under Bush II as well. Start an illegitimate war and the world responds exactly where it will hurt. As someone who has traveled to many areas of the world throughout my life, there have been 3 times when the world was proud to call America an ally, and there was actual respect (that I have experienced first-hand)- WWII, and under the Clinton and Obama administrations.
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Brian Klammer
Sep. 19th, 2012 at 2:07 am
It is most important to remember that it not what Romney says or does in this election that is important. The fact is……the bottom line is….. Romney is merely the point of a more dangerous and deviously sinister group of backers.
Romney was expressing the beliefs of these wealthy players who discount everyone’s value but their own. Romney was embracing the $50,000 a plate financiers of the Romney campaign. No president stands alone as the head of this country. The President is only as good as the people with whom he is surrounded.
The campaign financiers are who we must protect against…. The campaign financiers are those people of invisible power who have the president’s ear and guide his every action. The campaign financiers are the enemy of our free society with there guilds of market control.
The campaign financiers call themselves job creators but they have placed more stumbling blocks and burdens in the way of individuals than any government regulation. The campaign financiers control wages and control prices. The campaign financiers control competition and thus control our markets as surely as any West Virginia coal miner was forced to buy from the company store.
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Jo Hargis
Sep. 19th, 2012 at 2:54 am
This is so interesting! We, meaning us lefties, have been telling everyone for at least 3 years, over and over and over, it’s NOT about regulations, it’s about demand/customers. But no, the GOP needed to vilify Obama so they kept up the constant refrain against regulations, insisting small businesses were over-regulated. Well, if the GOP had spent their time finding out what small businesses really wanted and tried to represent their constituents, instead of hating on Obama no matter how untrue their accusations, perhaps they wouldn’t be losing in this poll. The GOP has promoted the hateful “Obamacare will kill small businesses” meme for years, and these business owners don’t seem to have fallen for that either. Good for them.
Matter of fact, I just saw an article about a poll of republican voters where 25% of those polled do NOT want ACA repealed now.
I agree with what Rocky (above) said also: people don’t like being lied to, and when they’re constantly lied to over and over, they finally get their fill of it. I see that chicken coming home to roost too.
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Angie Uncovered
Sep. 19th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
I watched as the company I worked for (small biz) failed toward the end of the Bush2 years. I have also watched the company I currently work for (also small biz) grow by over 50% in the last 18 months. Oddly enough, our owner still seems to think Romney is the answer. I quietly disagree.
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