Leadership Ratings Help Obama; 50 Percent Approval, Not So Much

Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Alex Wong/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- President Obama has maintained a sizable advantage over Mitt Romney in trust to handle a major crisis and regained his lead in being seen as the stronger leader, wielding the benefits of incumbency to stay competitive -- economic discontent aside -- in the razor-close 2012 election.

Obama also has managed essentially an even split with Romney in views of which candidate has better ideas on the size and role of government -- another case, as with the economy, on which Romney has been unable to capitalize fully on a vulnerability of the president’s.

See a PDF with full results and charts here.

Romney’s held his ground nonetheless, notably with record levels of support within the Republican Party and broad backing in some of its key constituencies, and in the final weekend of the race, the contest remains deadlocked, with 49 percent support for Obama among likely voters and 48 percent for Romney in the latest ABC News/Washington Post daily tracking poll.

There’s no clear evidence that Obama’s response to Hurricane Sandy has directly helped him; while he holds a 10-point lead over Romney in trust to handle a major crisis -- 52-42 percent -- that’s the same as it was earlier this fall, long before the storm struck.

Still, Obama has improved in a related gauge: This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that he now leads Romney by 6 percentage points among likely voters -- 50-44 percent -- in being seen as the stronger leader.  That re-establishes an edge for Obama that Romney had reeled in to a nonsignificant 2 points after the first presidential debate.

A third result further underscores the difficulties Romney’s experienced in achieving a clear breakthrough.  Earlier ABC/Post polling found a broad sense that Obama favors a larger government, while Romney is seen as favoring a smaller one; the latter is a view most likely voters profess to share.  Yet asked in this poll who has better ideas about the right size and role of government, it’s a 48-45 percent split, Romney-Obama -- not a significant difference, despite Romney’s built-in opportunity.

The economy is another such issue, indeed the key one.  Romney opened a 9-point lead in trust to handle the economy the week before last, but his momentum didn’t hold; it’s a nonsignificant 3 points, 49-46 percent, now.  And in economic empathy -- better understanding the economic problems of average Americans -- Obama holds a 6-point lead, again having recovered from a tighter division 10 days ago.

Certainly Obama faces difficulties of his own.  His overall job approval rating is steady at 50 percent -- passable enough to run competitively, but a good indication of why the contest is so close.  

There’s a strong correlation to vote preferences: Among likely voters who approve of Obama’s job performance, 93 percent back him for re-election; among disapprovers, 93 percent favor Romney.

That brings it down to turnout (in an election in which 27 percent of likely voters say in fact they’ve already voted), and there Obama has a potential advantage.  He holds a 7-point lead over Romney in the share of his supporters who say they’re very enthusiastic about their choice -- 69 percent of Obama’s backers, 62 percent of Romney’s.  That’s Obama’s biggest lead in strong support, numerically, since just after the conventions.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Stevie Wonder Rocks Obama Rally in Ohio

Kevin Mazur/WireImage via ABC(CINCINNATI) -- President Obama often exits the stage at the end of his campaign rallies to the recordings of Motown legend Stevie Wonder.  On Sunday night, he left the stage to the real thing.

As Obama wrapped his rally in Cincinnati, his third of four campaign events on Sunday, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” blasted through the University of Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena.

The president started to wave to the enthusiastic crowd and then did a double take.  There, off to the side of the stage, was Stevie Wonder, belting out his classic tune.

Obama walked back up to the mic and announced, “Stevie Wonder,” although he could barely be heard above the impromptu concert.  The president swayed back and forth and enjoyed the music briefly before getting to work, shaking hands and posing for pictures.

Stevie Wonder also revved up the crowd before the president’s speech, putting Obama’s “fired up, ready to go” rallying cry to music.

Stevie Wonder is one of the many famous musicians coming out to support the president in the final days of the campaign.  Katy Perry and Dave Matthews performed at his rallies on Saturday.  On Monday, Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z will lend their star power to the president’s last day on the trail.

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Paul Ryan Says Obama Would Compromise ‘Judeo-Christian’ Values

Matt Sullivan/Getty Images(CASTLE ROCK, Colo.) -- Paul Ryan squeezed in time on a four-stop, five-state day for a conference call with evangelical voters Sunday evening, issuing a warning about a second Obama term, saying the president is putting the country on a “dangerous path” that compromises “Judeo-Christian, western civilization values.”

Evangelical leader Ralph Reed’s influential group, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, hosted the call and Reed said “tens of thousands” of Evangelical Christians were listening in.

The GOP vice presidential nominee said in the “critical battleground states” it will make a “big difference” if people "are worried about…whether or not we’re going to go down the path the president has put us on.”

“It’s a dangerous path,” Ryan said in his opening remarks on the call.  “It’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, western civilization values that made us such a great an exceptional nation in the first place.”

Ryan talks about his Catholic faith frequently on the trail but on Sunday evening, he went into more detail when a caller from Florida asked him how his faith has given him and his family courage throughout the campaign.  Ryan said it “sustains us on a daily basis” and “we pray throughout the day,” noting he keeps a rosary in his pocket.

“It keeps us, keeps us humble, it keeps us strong, it keeps us in a great place, it gives us peace of mind,” Ryan said.  “First prayer I say every morning is the serenity prayer.”

He said the hometown priest at his Catholic church in Janesville, Wis., emailed him Sunday night with a message: “Just have no fear.”

“And that’s how the Lord sustains me,” Ryan said.  “No fear…It’s the prayer from my pastor, my family, with my family, and also it’s the prayers that are offered to me from perfect strangers that I know are out there praying, for Mitt [Romney] and myself, and our families, and our families are doing great.”

Ryan, who’s been with his three young children and wife, Janna, on the road for several days, said they are doing “very, very well” and they have been doing homework on the road this week.

“It’s because so many people around this country are praying for us and offering their prayers and coming up and giving us so many mementos that show they really care about this country and that they’re praying for us,” Ryan said.

As he does on the stump, he criticized President Obama for the administration’s mandate that hospitals and other employers affiliated with religious groups provide insurance coverage for contraception.

“We should not have to sue the federal government to keep our constitutional freedoms,” Ryan said, referring to the Catholic Church’s lawsuit over the mandate.

“Imagine what he would do if he actually got reelected.  It just puts a chill down my spine,” he added.

Ryan will travel to Nevada next for a five-state, five-stop day on Monday.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Obama Heckled in Cincinnati by Abortion Protester

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(CINCINNATI) -- President Obama was interrupted by a rowdy heckler just minutes into his rally in the critical battleground of Ohio Sunday night.

The anti-abortion protester held up a cardboard sign that read “this moral wrong should never be a constitutional right.”  The sign included some grisly medical photographs.

The older, grey-haired man, who was holding the sign upside down, shouted persistently from the upper balcony of the University of Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena in what sounded like a full-throated holler.

The enthusiastic crowd of 13,500 responded quickly, drowning out the heckler with deafening chants of “four more years!”

“It’s okay… It’s okay,” the president said in response.

The man grabbed the balcony railing and resisted mightily when four law enforcement officials tried to force him out.  The heckler was ultimately removed from the event.

A few moments later, another man standing at the back of the gymnasium interrupted the president again as he was talking about superstorm Sandy.  He too was escorted out of the arena.

“These might have been some Tennessee Titans fans who were mad at the Bears beating them really badly today,” Obama joked before launching back into his stump speech.

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Joe Biden’s Prediction: Ohio Will Win it for Obama

Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images(LANCASTER, Ohio) -- Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up his campaigning in Ohio Sunday night, telling a crowd packed into the gymnasium at Rushville Middle School that Ohio will tip this election in President Obama’s favor Tuesday night.

“Folks you’ve been incredibly patient.  Forty-eight more hours and it will be all she wrote.  We’ll know what’s going on, and we’re going to be able to declare because of Ohio that we have won the election in 48 hours,” Biden said to applause from the crowd.

In an interview Sunday afternoon, Biden predicted the Obama-Biden ticket would have a decisive victory in the electoral college with the help of their firewall of states in the Midwest -- Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

“I think that we’re going to win.  I don’t think it’s going to be close in the Electoral College.  I think we’re going to win clearly,” Biden said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in Lakewood, Ohio.  “I think we’re going to win this state, Ohio.  I’ve been in here 23, 24 days, something like that.  I think we’re going to win Iowa, we’re going to win Wisconsin, we’re going to win Nevada, we’re going to win New Hampshire.  I think we’ve got an even chance of winning Virginia and Florida.”

“It could be a big win, and it also could be close.  But I think the firewall here of Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa -- I think it’s going to hold firm,” the vice president added.

In one of his shortest speeches to date -- clocking in at around 16 minutes -- Biden outlined how the GOP ticket has abandoned the principles of their party and even joked about who is leading the Republican ticket -- Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan.

“One of the fundamental differences between Barack and me and Ryan and Romney, and Romney and Ryan,” Biden said correcting himself.   “That’s the right order although they’re not sure sometimes.”

Biden will spend his last day on the trail campaigning in Virginia Monday, and on Tuesday, he will cast his ballot in Wilmington, Del., before heading to Chicago for Tuesday night.  But before he left Ohio, a state he’s visited 11 times this year, Biden made one final declaration of how the Buckeye State will help the Democrats solidify a win in this election.

“Folks, we need you.  Together we can win Ohio, and if we win Ohio, we win this election,” he said.

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Romney Makes Last Push in Pennsylvania, Tries to Turn State Red

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images(MORRISVILLE, Pa.) -- With just more than 24 hours until voters can head to the polls in Pennsylvania, Mitt Romney made a last minute stop there on Sunday, drawing tens of thousands to a rally that his campaign hopes will push him to a win in a state they now see as an opportunity this Tuesday.

“This audience and your voices are being heard all over the nation,” said Romney.  “They’re being heard in my heart.  The people of America understand we’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win Pennsylvania!”

This is only Romney’s 14th trip to a state that, before this campaign cycle, was traditionally hotly contested turf.  Romney has taken a renewed interest in the state, going on the air with political ads there and sending a series of surrogates to stump in the state. 

Sunday night’s event -- Romney’s second since the Republican National Convention in August, his last coming in September -- was only announced on Friday, pulled together amid a whirlwind of other swing state visits in the final push before Election Day.

Despite the last-minute nature of the event, more than 25,000 people stood outside -- some said for more than four hours in near-freezing temperatures -- to hear Romney speak.  But when Romney got stuck in Ohio longer than expected due to what the campaign said was airport delays, many supporters left before Romney finished speaking, some noting the pain of standing in the cold for so long with no shield from the wind.

But the overall sentiment was one of excitement, with several in the crowd saying they were pleased that the candidate had come to the state, a visit that to many was unexpected.

Romney’s wife Ann expressed her own excitement at being back in the state, urging voters to pledge their support for her husband.

“This campaign is drawing to a close and what a wonderful welcome that you’ve given us and what energy you’ve given us to know that we can finish this race strong,” said Mrs. Romney.  “We are so excited about Tuesday and we’re so excited to be in Pennsylvania!”

Earlier Sunday, one of Romney’s senior advisors, Kevin Madden, said that Buck’s County, the site of Sunday night’s rally, is one of the “collar counties around Philadelphia where there is concentration of swing voters and have a big impact on how you win the state.”

Recent polls still show Obama with a slight edge in the state, but still under the 50 percent mark.  Obama won the state by 10 points over Sen. John McCain during the 2008 election.

“We’re in a better position in that area and it could have a real impact on whether or not we win that state,” Madden said, adding that he thinks Romney is in a “really good position” to win Pennsylvania.

“We see it as a great opportunity and traveling there today we think can help make a difference,” he said.  “And this is actually the perfect time given that you’re 48 hours from people making a decision, given that that they don’t have early voting there.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Paul Ryan Stumps in Traditionally Blue Minnesota

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(MINNEAPOLIS) -- Paul Ryan was greeted at an airplane hangar in Minneapolis on Sunday by one of the largest crowds he has drawn on his own since joining the campaign.

Hopping off the plane with his family and walking down a long runway, he seemed genuinely surprised by the audience.  The campaign put the crowd at 6,500, including the people who couldn’t fit inside.

“I’ve got a question: Minnesota, are you going to help us win this election?,” Ryan asked the crowd.  "Man, I’ve got to say, I’m a Wisconsin guy, basically like your next door neighbor.”

This was Ryan’s first rally in Minnesota, though he has had a fundraiser here and last week, he and his wife crossed the border from Wisconsin to have dinner in the Twin Cities.

Although its historically gone blue, Minnesota does have some conservative pockets.  As a reminder of that, former presidential candidate and U.S. House member Rep. Michele Bachmann stood right by the stage, beaming at Ryan throughout his speech.

The crowd interrupted Ryan’s speech with deafening chants of “two more years!” and in his remarks, he buttered up the crowd, saying he gets mistaken for a Minnesotan frequently.  He said he answers, "‘No I’m from Wisconsin, close.  We’re the Catholic deer hunters, they are the Lutheran deer hunters.’”

Ryan said that even though he was in the last 48-hour final sprint of his vice presidential candidacy, he was able to watch an ice fishing show Sunday morning, playing right to the  crowd.

“I’ve got a 15-year-old jiffy power auger and I was taking a look at these brand new ice fishing machines and I gotta tell you after this election I’ve got to look at a new one of those things,” Ryan said, adding that he spent a summer working in Eden Prairie, outside of Minneapolis.

“This is God’s country when you combine Minnesota and Wisconsin.  It is great to be home.  This is fantastic,” Ryan said.

As both Mitt Romney and Ryan have been doing on the stump, he stressed bipartisanship, aiming for Minnesotans’ independent streak.

“Look, Minnesota and Wisconsin, Wisconsinites and Minnesotans, we are bipartisan states, we know you have to work with people across the aisle because they’re with us, they’re part of us, they’re in our own families,” said Ryan.  “That’s what it’s like where we come from, it’s also what it’s like where Mitt Romney comes from.”

Ryan gave his closing pitch to the boisterous crowd, asking them to give his ticket a win because “we are in this together.”

“Everybody you know that may have thought hope and change was good, talk to them,” Ryan said.  “You know this is a critical election.  You know it’s a critical moment.  We can’t handle four more years of this, and Minnesota, work with us.  Join with us.”

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Joe Biden Makes Final Sales Pitch in Ohio, Calls Romney ‘Shameless’

Joe Raedle/Getty Images(LAKEWOOD, Ohio) -- Kicking off his last day campaigning in Ohio, Vice President Joe Biden made his final sales pitch to Buckeye State voters, telling them President Obama is the candidate they can trust.

“My guy Barack Obama has character,” Biden told a crowd of 1,200 at Lakewood High School.  “And that cannot be said of Gov. Romney…The American people, where I come from, like here, they’re asking themselves with 48 hours to go, who can I trust?  Who will stand up for me?  Who will level with me?  Who will help the middle class?  Well, it’s clear in the last hour of this campaign, Romney and Ryan and have become desperate.  Romney will say anything to win.”

“Why would they be having the policies they have?” he asked as a man in the crowd shouted, “They’re shameless!”

Biden replied, “They are shameless.  The shamelessness of them is they’re running away from what they believe.  That’s the shameless part.”

Biden accused Romney and Ryan of playing a “con game” by trying to change their positions in the final weeks of the campaign.  He said Romney supported budget cuts championed in Congress by Ryan, then disavowed them on the campaign trail.

“When it passed, Romney called it a marvelous, a marvelous document and said he would have signed if he were president,” Biden said.  "Here’s the point: these guys are trying to play a con game here in the end.  They’re trying to say the two things that really created  this new Republican Party they no longer subscribe to.  They no longer subscribe to.  When in fact, it’s exactly who they are.  The fact is these guys are shameless.”

Biden again hammered away at Romney for a “pernicious” ad in Ohio, which suggests the Obama administration would let Chrysler export Jeep auto workers’ jobs to China.  But the vice president slipped up, incorrectly referring to Bill Clinton as the president Romney is targeting in the TV spot, not Obama.

“That ad you’ve seen, it says President Clinton bankrupted Chrysler so that Italians could buy it to ship jobs overseas to China,” Biden said.

Biden, who was on his 12th trip to Ohio, also held events in Fremont and Lancaster as the president and vice president try to seal the deal in a state that could determine their fate.

“We need you Ohio.  We need you.  We win Ohio, we win this election,” Biden said.

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Obama on Final Campaign Swing, Jokes He’s Just a ‘Prop’ for Voters

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images(CONCORD, N.H.) -- President Obama kicked off his final 48-hour push to the finish line Sunday morning in New Hampshire, telling a crowd of 14,000 that at this stage in the campaign he’s just “sort of a prop in the campaign.”

“It’s now up to you,” he said at his last rally in the Granite State, where he was once again joined by former President Bill Clinton.  “That’s how a democracy works, right?  That ultimately, it’s up to you.  You have the power.  You are shaping the decisions for this country for decades to come.  Right now.  In the next two days.”

The president departed the White House for the last time before Election Day Sunday morning and spent close to 11 hours in the air Sunday as he flew from New Hampshire to rallies in Florida, Ohio and Colorado.

“We’ve made real progress,” Clinton told the masses outside the State House in Concord.  “Compared to what could have happened, Barack Obama has done a good job… With a tough hand, he has done a good job.”

Stealing a line from another former president, Clinton praised Obama’s record as a “decider-in-chief,” citing his decision to bail out the auto industry and push for health care reform.

Clinton continued to suggest GOP nominee Mitt Romney isn’t trustworthy.  Summing up his proposals, Clinton said Romney is telling voters, “Don’t pay much attention to what our solutions are… Look at me, I look like a president and I talk like one and I’m telling you it’s all gonna be all right.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Romney Kicks Off Whirlwind Tour of Battleground States in Iowa

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(DES MOINES, Iowa) -- Mitt Romney made his final stop in the battleground state of Iowa on Sunday, on a day that took him to Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania before midnight.

He had visited Iowa even before announcing his candidacy last June, and this was his 21st campaign event in Iowa this year alone.  Romney made his final argument for voters to come to the polls for him, stressing the importance of the state on Election Day.

“This is much more than our moment.  It’s America’s moment of renewal and purpose and optimism,” he said.  “We’ve journeyed far and wide in this great campaign for America’s future, and now we’re almost home.  One final push will get us there.  We’ve known many long days and short nights, and now we’re close.”

“The door to a brighter future is there, open, waiting for us.  I need your vote, I need your work, I need your help.  Walk with me.  We’ll walk together.  Let’s begin anew.  I need Iowa -- I need Iowa so we can win the White House and take back America, keep it strong, make sure we always remain the hope of the earth.  I’m counting on you.  Will you get the job done?” Romney shouted.

Romney’s voice sounded hoarse at times and he flubbed one of his most frequently used lines, saying that employment, rather than unemployment, had risen under President Obama.

But appearing more energized toward the end of his speech, Romney began to rally the crowd of more than 4,000, many of whom banged noise makers and waved American flags.

“This is a campaign about America and about the future we’re going to leave our children,” he said.  “We thank you, we ask you to stay with it.  All the way.  All the way to our victory on Tuesday night!”

Romney has made seven stops in Iowa alone since the Republican National Convention in August.  The latest Des Moines Register poll showed Obama ahead in the state, 47-42 percent.

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