First Thoughts: Obama unloads on Romney

First Thoughts: Obama unloads on Romney ;.. *** Going to extremes: Yesterday’s back-and-forth made us wonder if this is May or October. How do we know the Obama-Romney race is close? Because both men are going to the extremes to disqualify each other. Obama’s argument is that Romney doesn’t have the values to be president (he’ll look out only for the 1%, not the 99%); Romney’s is that Obama doesn’t have the skills (he’s never run a business and his policies have failed). In addition, we’ve now seen Republicans -- Marco Rubio was the latest -- to describe Obama as the most divisive president in modern times. (Yet channeling National Journal’s Jill Lawrence, Obama is only the most polarizing president since Bush, who was the most polarizing president since Clinton, who was the most polarizing since Reagan, etc…. And, boy, that Lincoln was so polarizing that his election triggered the Civil War.)

*** NBC/WSJ poll day! It’s worth noting that Obama has been unable to drive a message on the economy in May. For instance, there was the recent NATO summit on Afghanistan. There also was Obama’s own announcement on Afghanistan, as well as the Osama bin Laden anniversary and the gay-marriage announcement. So how do Americans currently view the economy? Where does the Obama-Romney contest currently stand? Tune in to “Nightly News” or click on to msnbc.com for the answers to those questions from our brand-new NBC/WSJ poll beginning at 6:30 pm ET. Meanwhile, a new Washington Post/ABC poll shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by three points among registered voters, 49%-46%, though it’s within that survey’s margin of error. The poll shows the two men deadlocked on handling the economy, 47%-47%.