Politics

A Ray of Hope

Why today was a good day for Mitt Romney.

Illustration by Charlie Powell.

Illustration by Charlie Powell.

Every day until the election, Slate will offer up one reason to be optimistic for your candidate.

43 Days to go:

Today’s Good News for Romney: Presidential candidates like to talk about the middle class. Well, it turns out the middle class likes Mitt Romney. The Republican presidential candidate has maintained a sizeable lead among middle-class families, holding a 14-point advantage over Obama. (Fifty-one percent of middle-class voters have an unfavorable view of the president, while 54 percent disapprove of his job performance.) In a nearly tied election, those differences could be extremely consequential: Middle-class families make up about 54 percent of the voting population, and both candidates have been wooing them intensely. These voters are crucial for capturing swing states like Ohio and Virginia, and so far—despite all of his missteps—Romney still has the advantage with every politician’s favorite demographic.

See today’s good news for Barack Obama.

See Mitt Romney’s good news from Friday.