MANCHESTER, N.H. — President Barack Obama will visit a changed New Hampshire today.
The independent-minded presidential swing state he won in 2008 has shifted distinctly to the right since his last visit nearly two years ago. The local economy is struggling to grow, and voters are increasingly unhappy with the president’s leadership.
“He’s not getting my vote — no way,” said Norman Berube, 49, a construction worker and registered independent, while waiting for a booth at the Airport Diner recently. “This country is worse off.”
Others say the same.
Recent polls show that if the election were held today, Obama would lose the state by roughly 10 percentage points to Mitt Romney, the leading contender for the Republican nomination. That’s quite a slide for an incumbent who beat Republican Sen. John McCain here by nearly the same margin three years ago.
Still, just a few weeks ahead of the Jan. 10 primary, Democrats aren’t panicking. In fact, Obama’s campaign is quietly confident that he can re-ignite voters’ passion the more they see him, which explains why Obama is venturing to Central High School to promote elements of his jobs plan that has stalled in a divided Congress.
“There have been a lot of Republicans up here,” said Kathy Sullivan, a New Hampshire-based member of the Democratic National Committee. “It’s a good time for the people of New Hampshire to hear from the president.”
On Monday alone, four of the eight GOP contenders — Romney, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — campaigned in New Hampshire.
Romney, speaking to voters in Nashua, used Obama’s visit to bash the president anew.
“I’d like to hear what he has to say,” Romney said. “It’s very clear, we’re not better off than we were when he came into office.”
Independent voters helped Republicans sweep the state’s congressional elections and win veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. It was a dramatic shift for a state many thought had been shifting to the left over the past decade.
“New Hampshire is obviously going to be an important state in the general election, and it’s a state where voters keep pretty close tabs on how often you visit,” said Reid Cherlin, a former spokesman for Obama in New Hampshire and at the White House. “The White House sees New Hampshire as open-minded and independent — the kind of state that may be more open to Obama’s jobs pitch and less inclined to be governed by the passions of the moment, like Tea Party ideology.”
