Inside Politics

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Romney brushes off flip-flopper criticism

MANCHESTER — Mitt Romney is brushing aside criticism he is a flip-flopper.

The Republican presidential contender won’t pretend he’s never changed his mind on every issue he’s ever considered. He says that during his business career he learned that people have to change when facts change. If they don’t, they get fired for being stubborn and stupid.

He doesn’t cite any specific shifts, but critics point to changes on social issues and the economic stimulus package.

Mr. Romney’s comments came in response to a question during a town-hall meeting Tuesday at Saint Anselm College. He also attacked top Obama strategist David Axelrod.

The day before, Mr. Axelrod described the president’s re-election as a “titanic struggle.”

Mr. Romney said it was an appropriate phrase given that the campaign is going to sink.

PENNSYLVANIA

Poll: State voters prefer winner-take-all system

HARRISBURG — A new poll shows that most Pennsylvanians don’t want to change the way the state awards electoral votes in presidential elections.

The poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut finds that 52 percent of voters prefer the current winner-take-all system, while 40 percent favor a proposal by a top Republican state senator to award electoral votes by congressional district.

Erik Arneson, a spokesman for Sen. Dominic Pileggi, said the senator’s proposal better reflects the will of the voters, and that support for it will grow as more people become more familiar with it. Maine and Nebraska are the only states that currently use such a system.

The statewide telephone survey polled 1,370 registered voters and had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

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