(09/13/12) -

Uncommitted Voters in Battleground States Review Convention Speeches

Obama gets more voters to say they are likely to support him, but Romney sees his likeability improve with one-in-four clip watchers.

While Mitt Romney managed to improve his image among uncommitted voters after his convention speech, Barack Obama elicited a more positive emotional response with his own address, a new poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion has found.

The online surveys of representative samples of uncommitted voters in 11 battleground states relied on Vision Critical’s unique Media Impact application to gauge second-by-second reactions to two separate excerpts of each convention acceptance speech, including the final messages.

Republican National Convention Speech

The first message tested was Romney’s outline of life in America, and saw a jump in interest when he described how, in the best days, “we go to work in the morning and see everybody else in the block doing the same thing.” Respondents were annoyed when Romney suggested a lack of excitement towards President Obama, and argued that “the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.” The Republican nominee’s final message saw a spike on excitement when he discussed his views on America’s military,

Democratic National Convention Speech

The first message tested was Obama’s discussion of “what the election comes down to”, which included a jab at Romney’s suggestion that people should “borrow money from their parents” if they can’t afford to start a business or go to college. This line saw the largest jump on annoyance in the entire clip. Obama created interest when he said that Americans have “certain inalienable rights” and that it honours “the strivers.” The Democratic nominee generated excitement when he said that we “learn from our mistakes.”

Electoral Impact

After watching the clip, 28 per cent of respondents said they are now more likely to vote for Mitt Romney in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, including 34 per cent of those aged 35-to-54. In addition, 23 per cent of clip watchers said their opinion of the Republican nominee improved.

Three-in-ten uncommitted voters who watched the Obama clip (30%) say they are more likely to support the Democratic nominee in the presidential election, including 38 per cent of those aged 18-to-34. Only 15 per cent of clip watchers said their opinion of Obama improved.

Analysis

The emotions that received the most clicks during Romney’s clip were boredom, annoyance and disturbance. Obama also elicited a high number of clicks on boredom and annoyance, but was more successful than Romney in generating interest from the audience.

While neither candidate scored big with undecided voters in the battleground states, both showed specific strengths. Romney connected in a more powerful way with middle-aged voters, and practically one-in-four respondents who saw the clip say they now have a better opinion of him. Obama, on the other hand, scored slightly better on likelihood to vote, but mainly due to an extraordinary showing among younger voters. The President’s speech did not generate a drastic shift in momentum, with “improved” and “worsened” opinions practically canceling each other out.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Angus Reid Public Opinion
+877 730 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com

Methodology:
This Angus Reid Public Opinion release features the results of two online surveys.

The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/-4.6% for both samples. The 11 battleground states included in these surveys are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.