President Obama Courts Women Voters; A Wake Up Call for Democrats; Gender Gap, What Gender Gap?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now:</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I like hanging out with women. What can I tell you?</s>BLITZER: President Obama steps up his courting of female voters, but Democrats get a wakeup call. A brand-new poll shows Mitt Romney may be leading among women. Also, that's not the only category where President Obama may be trailing. Is it time for Democrats to panic? I will ask the Democratic Party boss, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She is standing by live. And a Facebook co-founder unfriends the United States of America -- how giving up his U.S. citizenship could save him hundreds of millions in taxes when the company goes public. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Democrats have been betting on a big gender gap to give President Obama an edge in the November election. They have accused Republicans of a war on women. And President Obama has been going all out to court female voters, but suddenly a new poll suggests that it's Mitt Romney who may now have an edge among women. Let's go straight to our White House correspondent, Brianna Keilar. Brianna, should the president be worried that he's potentially losing his critically important edge with women?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it may be too soon to tell. These poll numbers may not tell the entire story. But if we take a look at this poll by CBS News/"New York Times," it does show Governor Romney up by 2 percentage points over President Obama when it comes to women. Now, that's within the four-point margin of error, so it shows a neck-and-neck race. But one reason to kind of look at this very carefully is because other polls, albeit less recent polls, show the president with a major advantage over Governor Romney. And, for instance, if you look at our latest poll, the CNN/ORC poll that was done in mid-April, it shows President Obama with a 16 percent advantage. Now, the Obama campaign, Wolf, is really pushing back on the methodology of this poll. And it's sort of standard of course if you don't like a poll to push back on it, but there may be something to the complaint here and this is why. For this latest poll -- it was done in mid-May -- it actually -- they called back people that they had polled in April. So they had a sample in April and they reused it in May. But they didn't get all of those people. So it was even smaller and the bottom line is that may not be really representative of the nation as a whole. So we are really going to have to wait and see other polls and see what they say before we can really make more of a conclusion about maybe which direction, if any, women are going.</s>BLITZER: Yes, because in April when "The New York Times" asked that same question -- "The New York Times" and CBS -- the president had an advantage; 49 percent of the women in April in that same "New York Times"/CBS poll said they supported President Obama, 43 percent Mitt Romney. But now that has shifted, 44 percent, as you point out, for Barack Obama, 46 percent for Mitt Romney. So there's clearly been a shift in that "New York Times" poll, but the methodology is something that leaves some expert pollsters in doubt maybe on the reliability of this new poll.</s>KEILAR: Exactly.</s>BLITZER: We will see some new polls coming out in the next few days, whether there's a trend here or whether this may simply be a mistake on the part of "The New York Times" and CBS. So tell us what the president of the United States is now doing to reenergize that female base out there, because without it he is going to be a one-term president.</s>KEILAR: That's right. He's really counting on this, Wolf. And you can tell just by his schedule recently. Yesterday, he was at Barnard College, prestigious women's school in New York City, delivering commencement address, urging women there to fight for a seat at the head of the table. And right after that, he went straight over to "The View" to talk with the all-female team of hosts there about things you don't normally hear him talk about, for instance, how to raise daughters in the Internet age. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE VIEW") ELISABETH HASSELBECK, CO-HOST: What sort of rules do you and the first lady to protect them and guide them?</s>OBAMA: Well, first of all, Malia didn't get a phone until last year.</s>HASSELBECK: OK.</s>OBAMA: So Sasha still doesn't have a phone.</s>JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST: How old is Malia?</s>OBAMA: Malia is 13. She'll be 14 in July.</s>BEHAR: Right.</s>OBAMA: They don't have a Facebook page. You know, part of that, obviously, is for security for us.</s>KEILAR: Now, Wolf, he also talked about things like Title IX and its effect on women's athletics and how in his view it's given women more confidence in other areas of their life. He's courting the women's vote big-time.</s>BLITZER: Yes, he needs that female vote big time, as you point out, Brianna. Thank you. Mitt Romney was battered by fellow Republicans during the primary campaign, but he's clearly bounced back. And while he's been hammered by Democrats, those blows have at least so far bounced off. Our national political correspondent, Jim Acosta, is taking a closer look into this part of the story. So far, he's holding pretty strong out there, Jim.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Polls show Mitt Romney is hanging tough with President Obama. And the reason is simple, the economy. The Romney campaign knows this. And as millions of daytime talk show viewers witnessed earlier today, so does the president.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Mitt Romney is sticking to what appears to be working with voters, his message on the nation's fiscal health.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This debt is America's nightmare mortgage. This is not just bad economics. It is morally wrong and we must stop it.</s>ACOSTA: These days, there isn't much that's sticking to Romney.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With Romney and Bain Capital, the objective was to make money.</s>ACOSTA: After weeks of attacks like this pro-Obama super PAC ad on Romney's time at Bain Capital to questions about whether he would have taken out Osama bin Laden to stories about his high school pranks, polls show the GOP contender is still neck-and-neck with the president. The latest "USA Today"/Gallup poll show voters have as favorable a view of Romney as they have of President Obama. And the same poll finds Americans believe the economy would be better under Romney.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the economy went bad, a month after my divorce, I lost my job, I lost my house.</s>ACOSTA: That explains why this Romney campaign Web video hand- picks a few unemployed workers in the battleground state of Iowa to take a subtle dig at the president.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They everyone believed, everyone had hope. They all thought, man, this guy is going to get something done.</s>OBAMA: When your name is Barack Obama, it's always tight.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barack Hussein Obama.</s>OBAMA: Barack Hussein Obama.</s>ACOSTA: Appearing on the daytime talk show "The View," the president agreed the economy will determine the election. Still, despite being in office for more than three years Mr. Obama declined to grade himself on his handling of the economy.</s>HASSELBECK: So how do you grade yourself, honestly, in terms of how you've done in terms of economics...</s>OBAMA: You know, the -- I won't give us a letter grade. I think it's still incomplete.</s>ACOSTA: The Romney campaign said the president moving backwards, pointing out Mr. Obama once gave himself a B-plus for his job performance.</s>ROMNEY: These have been years of disappointment and of decline. And soon we can put all that behind us. We can prosper again.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): I love people. I love lakes.</s>ACOSTA: And Romney is even getting help with those sometimes awkward campaign comments about his love of lakes and cars. The irreverent rap group the Gregory Brothers have turned those moments into a musical mash-up.</s>ROMNEY: My sons are</s>ACOSTA: I don't know if you noticed there, Wolf, but that was from an interview that you did with the Romneys aboard their campaign bus back in Iowa. Meanwhile, Democrats counter Romney's plans are a throwback to the presidency of George W. Bush, who told a reporter earlier today here in Washington, I'm for Mitt Romney. In a statement from the Romney campaign, a spokeswoman said, "We welcome the president's support as we welcomed his father's." Just wanted to point out, Wolf, you were in there in that video as well.</s>BLITZER: Yes. Well, they edited me out of there. They put someone else in that bus. But what took President Bush so long to finally endorse, come on board the Romney campaign?</s>ACOSTA: He didn't stick around for any follow-up questions. And that is a big question that is out there. Not only why did it take President Bush, George W. Bush, so long to give this endorsement, but why did it take the Romney campaign so long to get this out there? Obviously, this is a different situation when compared to perhaps getting the endorsement of Jeb Bush or George H.W. Bush. A lot of Americans out there still blame President George W. Bush for the problems that are out there with the economy right now. So perhaps this sort of lukewarm endorsement and reception of that endorsement, you know, that may speak volumes in terms of just how popular George W. Bush still is in this country, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, I think you're absolutely right, Jim. Thanks very much. Let's dig a little bit deeper right now with our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. Gloria, how much of a window does the Obama campaign and their supporters have to try to discredit Romney and his Bain Capital business experience?</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: They do have a small window now. This is a point in a campaign -- primaries are over for the Republicans -- and you try and define your opponent. And I think the White House takes a look at the polling and they say, what's the one area in which Mitt Romney does better than Barack Obama? And that's the area and best able to handle the economy. They also clearly look at the polls, which say that only a third of the American public thinks that they're better off today than they were four years ago. So if you're in the Obama campaign, you're saying, what do we have to do? We have to credit Mitt Romney's ability to manage the economy and tell the American people, you know what? Given the job he did at Bain Capital, he doesn't have the right stuff to be president because he doesn't care about people like you. That's exactly what they're doing right now.</s>BLITZER: But there's a risk in this Obama strategy.</s>BORGER: Sure, there is, because fairness is a theme that resonates with the American people. What does not resonate with the American people is class warfare, particularly independent voters. They think it's fine to want to aspire to be rich or to be rich yourself. And take a look at this. Gallup did an Obama job approval question, but they filtered out what they call pure independent voters. And the president's job approval among those pure independent voters is only 33 percent. So the Obama campaign knows those are the people they have to try and win back. And that's probably one of the reasons, Wolf, that when they're not talking about the economy, they're talking about portraying Mitt Romney as an extremist on social issues, because they think that would resonate with those independent voters that they're not doing as well as they'd like to be doing.</s>BLITZER: How much does the personal factor, though, count?</s>BORGER: I think the personal factor matters lot. Voting for president is a very, very personal vote. This is the person who will send your children to war, for example. And so when you look at the overall favorability gap between President Obama and Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney is closing that now because the primaries are over. But take a look at some of our polling on personal characteristics comparing the president to Romney. More in touch with women, the president 57 -- 55 percent to Romney 27 percent. More in touch with the middle class, again, you see such a wide margin. And one more thing, Wolf. Stands up for what he believes in, very important in a leader, the president again 50 percent to Romney's 29 percent. Those are the areas that Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate, really needs to work on if he's going to connect with the American people.</s>BLITZER: Yes. He's got almost six months to do it. We will see if he does.</s>BORGER: He does. He's got a -- he's got a lot of time.</s>BLITZER: Gloria, thanks very much. By the way, check out my blog. I write about President Obama, Mitt Romney, and Bain Capital, CNN.com/situationroom. A powerful counterpoint to Democratic charges of a Republican war on women.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband had a penchant for drinking, and when he drank, he turned very mean, very violent.</s>BLITZER: Now she's a Republican congresswoman and a key player in the battle over renewing the Violence Against Women Act. We will update you on what's going on. Also, we will get the Democrats' argument from the party chair. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she's here live. We will talk about that and what critics call her role as President Obama's attack dog. And a Facebook co-founder and soon-to-be-billionaire de-friends the United States of America. He gives up his U.S. citizenship. Was it simply to save millions of dollars in taxes?