Mitt Romney speaks about Barack Obama more than Obama talks about Romney. When Romney speaks about Obama, he criticizes him on policy issues while Obama focuses more on Romney’s personality and campaign strategy.
Romney Talks About Obama More Than Obama Talks About Romney
Chart shows percentage of statements from each candidate about the other candidate. Time frame is April 17 – July 10.
In election coverage since late April, Mitt Romney has had considerably more of his statements be about Barack Obama than Obama has had about Romney. Over one-third (34%) of Mitt Romney’s statements since April 17 have been about Obama, while just 14% of Obama’s statements have been about Romney in election coverage.
Romney Attacks Obama On Economy and Major Policy Issues
Chart shows percentage of statements from Mitt Romney about Barack Obama, broken out by sentiment. Filtered for top 10 topics when Romney speaks about Obama. Time frame is April 17 – July 10.
In Romney’s statements about Obama, 97% have been negative to Obama. Just 3% of his statements have been neutral and without critique while 0% of his statements toward Obama have been positive. The majority of this criticism, as alluded to in Friday’s post, has been about the economy. Almost half (47%) of Romney’s statements about Obama since April 17th in election coverage have been about the economy, and all of these statements have been negative to Obama. Other than the economy, Romney has criticized Obama on mostly policy issues such as healthcare and immigration. Romney’s criticism pivoted off of Obama’s executive order on Immigration in mid-June and the healthcare ruling in late June. Both events prompted heavy criticism from Romney toward Obama.
Obama Attacks Romney on Economy, Character and Strategy
Chart shows percentage of statements from Barack Obama about Mitt Romney, broken out by sentiment. Filtered for top 10 topics when Obama speaks about Romney. Time frame is April 17 – July 10.
When Obama speaks about Romney, he too concentrates most on the economy. Over 50% of Obama’s statements about Romney in election coverage since April 17th have been about the economy. However, 10% of those statements are neutral to Romney, whereas all of Romney’s statements about Obama and the economy were negative to Obama. Just under one-third (30%) of Obama’s statements on Romney are about his character and campaign strategy, and 85% were negative to Romney.
Overall, as amplified by the media, Obama’s has deployed a less negative strategy toward Romney than Romney has had toward Obama. Similar to Romney, Obama has had no statements positive to Romney. However, 88% of Obama’s statements on Romney were negative, leaving 12% of his statements neutral. That is four times as many neutral statements that Obama has had when speaking about Romney than Romney has had when speaking about Obama.
