U.S. Economy Gives Obama’s Potential Rivals Opening With Voters

Helen Powers says she didn’t get what she voted for when she backed President Barack Obama in 2008. Now she wants to know what the Republicans looking to oust him next year would do to get U.S. jobs back, gas prices down, and federal retirement programs secured for the future.

“At the beginning, I had high hopes for Obama, but now I’m not even sure -- there just hasn’t been much positive change and things are so bad with the economy,” Powers, a 25-year-old hotel manager, said last week in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first primary. “I’m really open, and I’m interested to see what they can bring to the table as far as jobs,” she said of Republicans.