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Friday, Aug 31, 2012 4:00 AM UTC

BETTER OFF?

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Topics: From the Wires,

BETTER OFF?the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)(Credit: Charles Dharapak)

Mitt Romney says that since the Great Depression, every president seeking a second term — except two — could look back on four years in office and say “you are better off today than you were four years ago.”

The two exceptions, says Romney: Democrats Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

But he left a third name off that list — Republican George H.W. Bush.

Mitt Romney is right that more Americans feel worse off today than feel better off.

In the most recent AP-GfK poll of all adults, 28 percent said they were better off today than four years ago, while 36 percent said they were worse off and 36 percent said they were in about the same financial position.

But the CBS/New York Times poll the October that Bush was seeking re-election found 23 percent of registered voters said they were better off than four years ago, and 36 percent worse off. Forty percent felt about the same.

In August of that year (1992) it was 23 percent better, 34 percent worse, 42 percent about the same, among all adults.

— Jennifer Agiesta — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennagiesta

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — Convention Watch shows you the 2012 political conventions through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.

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