Dems getting nervous

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Democrats aren’t just nervous about President Barack Obama’s listless debate performance. One month from Election Day, supporters worry his campaign hasn’t been aggressive enough in managing the fallout, and they fear losing ground with women voters.

The hand-wringing prompted Obama on Wednesday to respond directly, assuring backers, “I got this.”

Party loyalists, in Washington and in battleground states, are fretting that Obama’s campaign has been slow to rebound after last week’s lead-off debate, which Republican Mitt Romney is widely viewed as having won. They’re worried that the Democratic ticket hasn’t been able to block Romney’s post-debate pivot to the political center. And they fear Romney’s new effort to show a softer side gives the Republican nominee an opening with female voters who are crucial to the president’s re-election prospects.

“I’m not feeling very positive,” said Awilda Marquez, a prominent Democrat in Colorado. “I know that it’s only the first debate, but he can’t seem to change the relentless negative coverage. Romney has been able to take control.”

Her nervousness was echoed by other Democrats in interviews across the country just before the next opportunity to get the Obama campaign back on track — Vice President Joe Biden’s debate tonight against Republican Paul Ryan.

Obama’s campaign, seeking to address some of the concerns, launched a fresh critique of Romney Wednesday for saying he wouldn’t pursue abortion-related legislation as president. Obama aides accused the Republican of “hiding” his positions of earlier in the year in order to gain women’s votes.

The president’s team says no major changes are expected in his own re-election strategy. Nevertheless, the president and his aides are seeking to reassure anxious Democrats that key factors are still in their favor.

“By next week, I think a lot of the hand-wringing will be complete because we’re going to go ahead and win this thing,” Obama said in an interview with radio host Tom Joyner.

The president appears to maintain a narrow lead in polling in many battleground states and has more pathways than Romney to reach the 270 Electoral College votes required to win the White House. Also, more Democrats than Republicans are registered to vote in swing states such as Florida and Nevada. And last Friday’s dip in the nation’s unemployment rate to 7.8 percent gave some credence to Obama’s core argument that the economy is slowly but surely recovering.

But there’s little doubt that the burst of momentum Obama enjoyed last month has come to a halt after the first debate. That’s given Romney ample opportunity to rebound from a dismal September with just four weeks until Election Day and millions of Americans already casting early votes. Polls taken after the debate show the race tightening nationally and in key states, though both parties say the president maintains an edge in such crucial states as Ohio and Virginia.