US voters say economy overshadows political hoopla
Andrea HopkinsCINCINNATI (Reuters) - Trudy Tucker doesn't know ifthe back-to-back U.S. political conventions addressed thefinancial worries she has raising four children -- she was toobusy to watch.
"I didn't hear much about that, to be honest," said Tucker,a supporter of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, asshe shopped at discount retailer Target in Cincinnati.
"The economy is depressed. Our money isn't stretching asfar," said Tucker, 40. With four kids to home school andcoupons to clip to save money, the political conventions fellby the wayside.
"I didn't have time to watch," she said.
Chicago real estate agent Kathy Ivcich did catch some ofthe speechmaking but the celebratory atmosphere among thedelegates left her wondering if they felt any of the economicpain she's experiencing.
"We're feeling it in a city like Chicago; I can't imaginethese people aren't hurting, too, but I guess not," saidIvcich, 45, an independent voter.
The hoopla of the Democratic and Republican nominatingconventions captivated political junkies over the past twoweeks but gloomy employment news released Friday showed manyAmericans may be feeling left out of the party.
Government data showed the unemployment rate climbed to 6.1percent in August, the highest in nearly five years, asemployers shed 84,000 jobs. It was the eighth straight month ofjob cuts and brought losses over the last three months tonearly a quarter of a million jobs.
Both McCain and Democratic presidential nominee BarackObama hit the ground running after their respectiveconventions, meeting with voters in battleground states likeMichigan and Pennsylvania to promise change in Washington, andto help consumers with fresh tax and energy policies.
TOO CLOSE TO CALL
While McCain is trying to distance himself from RepublicanPresident Bush, whose eight-year tenure has featureda rise in unemployment and a growing housing and credit crisis,Obama has struggled to convince working-class voters that hefeels their pain.
Bernice Shiney, a nurse in Nashville, Tennessee, watchedsome of both the Democratic and Republican conventions but wasleft feeling that nothing that was stated was relevant to her.
"They haven't said a thing," Shiney said. "It's all apersonal thing with them, to see if they can beat each otherdown and win. That's what it's all about."
McCain trails Obama slightly in most national opinion pollsas they head toward the Nov. 4 election but the vote is stillconsidered too close to call. Opinion polls show majoritiesfavor Obama's leadership on the economy, although McCain isusually favored on foreign policy issues.
Economist Christian Weller of the liberal-leaning Centerfor American Progress said that while both men have put forthlong-term proposals to address tax or energy policies, dismaleconomic data will likely force them to come up with specificshort-term plans to try to win over undecided voters.
"They both will have to connect, especially in battlegroundstates, to the plight of American families. It's not just theunemployment numbers, it's the rising foreclosures, risingbankruptcies, rising prices," Weller said. "People want to hearnot only about the plan for five years out or eight years out,but, 'How will you help me pay my fuel bill in the winter."'
But Cincinnati mom Meghan Guitron, 28, said she wasskeptical any politician would help with her family's budget.
"Gas prices, grocery bills -- it would be nice to see someimprovement in that, but I don't know how much they canguarantee," said Guitron, a stay-at-home mother of one.
Instead, Guitron said she would vote for Obama simply tohelp break the Republican hold on the White House.
"More than anything, I just feel we need a change." (Additional reporting by Andrew Stern and Mike Conlon inChicago and Pat Harris in Nashville; Editing by Eric Walsh)