Support for Mitt Romney in US presidential election-India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Some US Independent voters who lean slightly in President Barack Obama's favor are supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on the political spectrum, particularly on economic priorities, according to a poll. The poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group for the Democratic think tank Third Way , focused on a segment of independent voters, "swing independents", known as those voters who did not express strong views about either of the candidates. The poll, covering 1,000 self-identified independent voters, showed that 44 percent of swing independents currently favor Obama to 38 percent for Romney, The Los Angeles Times reports. Obama won 57 percent of swing independents in 2008. The polls found that "fairness argument" did not resonate with swing independents. Their top economic concerns were deficit, growth and jobs and not economic equality. According to the paper, on a scale of one to nine, with one being the most liberal and nine being the most conservative, swing independents, on average, put themselves at a 5.2. They put Obama at a 3.9, slightly more liberal than Democrats as a whole, who were at 3.93. They put Romney at a 6.09, considerably less conservative than the GOP as a whole, at 6.79, the report said. According to the report, 51 percent of swing independents said that they would vote for a candidate who believed that the country required an economy based on opportunity.

Independent voters favouring Obama tilt more towards Romney on economic issues