At this point in 2012, most national polls had Obama well ahead with young voters. It's hard to dig up crosstabs for ancient polls, but none were having Romney ahead as far as I can tell.
This is an extension of a myth that tries to liken Biden 2024 to Obama 2012 despite them being very different. The simple fact is that, outside of a few brief weeks, Obama led Romney by a few points in the average at all times and had a EC advantage. Obama was never losing the tipping point state in 2012, much less by close to the 5 point deficit Biden has faced. Obama was better liked than Romney. He didn't have widespread doubts of basic competency like Biden does. Obama was never really worse than a 75-25 shot to win, Biden has arguably been under 50-50 for six months.
Obama was weaker in two areas: the economy and the strength of his opponent. The economy was still weak and Romney was viewed as a good economic manager, although severe and heartless. Romney was not a great candidate just because he was so repulsive to lower class people, but on the whole better better than Trump.
Largely agree — but this is why Romney was worse than TRUMP. Lower class, low status, low propensity voters decide presidential elections. They never felt like Romney was on their side. Now it’s different.
