WASHINGTON — Although he was recently overheard saying Mitt Romney would do a better job of running the country, Mayor Bloomberg gave President Obama good marks yesterday for his job in office.
“It’s easy to say that the president should be doing more, but he’s got a lot of things to balance,” Bloomberg said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” “On balance, I think he’s doing a good job.”
Pointing to a polarized Congress and troubles around the world, Bloomberg said Obama has gotten a bad rap.
“I happen to think that Obama’s been a much better president than people give him credit for,” Bloomberg said. “He’s in a very difficult situation.”
“I agree with the president on a lot of the social issues,” Bloomberg added. “I’d like to see him do more, but you’d always like to see him do more.”
Bloomberg’s Obama-friendly comments came on a day when the Senate’s top Hispanic Republican said Romney will have difficulty winning over Hispanic voters concerned about the nation’s immigration policy.
“There are also a large number of Hispanic voters in the country who happen to be liberal Democrats, who happen to be lifelong Democrats,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They’re not going to change their positions and decide to vote for Mitt Romney now because he won’t change his position on immigration or not.”
Rubio, who has been touted as a possible Romney running mate, criticized Obama’s recent call to stop deporting illegal immigrants who came to the country before age 16 and have received a high-school diploma as a “short-term fix to a long-term problem.”
Meanwhile, a poll out yesterday found 25 percent of American voters are now up for grabs. The Associated Press-GfK survey showed Obama had a slight lead over Romney, 47 percent to 44 percent.