Obama alleges ‘Romnesia’ as polls tighten

U.S. President Barack Obama this week alleged that his Republican rival in the November’s presidential election had a case of “Romnesia” — a condition that made him undeserving of the support of women across the country, he suggested.

Mr. Obama’s tongue-in-cheek remark comes scarcely two weeks ahead of Election Day and amid national polls giving him a marginal lead, with one notable exception — the venerable Gallup.

Speaking to a charged-up crowd at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia on Friday, the President said Mitt Romney was “changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping, we’ve got to name this condition that he’s going through. I think it’s called ‘Romnesia’”.

Outlining what he considered the inconsistencies in Mr. Romney’s remarks Mr. Obama said, “If you say you’re for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you’d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work... if you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care... if you say you’ll protect a woman’s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you’d be delighted to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases.. man, you’ve definitely got Romnesia.”

Persisting with the healthcare analogy Mr. Obama quipped, “If you come down with a case of Romnesia... here’s the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up. We’ve got a cure.”

Mr. Obama’s outreach to supporters in the battleground State of Virginia came as polls of likely voters across the nation pointed to a slim lead that the Democratic leader held over his Republican challenger.

Of the 13 polls conducted in swing States, Mr. Obama maintained a lead in 11. Yet according to the Gallup national tracking poll alone Mr. Romney was ahead of the President by seven points.

The Gallup results immediately became enmeshed in controversy, even though Gallup itself has an impressive record of “correctly predicting all but three of the 19 presidential races stretching back to 1936”.