Voters focus on pocketbooks as economy wobbles

By Andrea Hopkins

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The colorful topics -- whether Oprah or immigration -- steal the media attention on the U.S. campaign trail, but voters never take long to get to their household budget when asked what really matters.

"Health care. Right now, I get it through my company and it's worthless. It's almost $300 a month and you get nothing," said Morgan Hall, a psychologist who came out to hear Democrat Hillary Clinton at a recent Des Moines campaign stop.

"(U.S. President George W.) Bush said the economy is good, but I think he's pulling our leg," retired sheet metal worker Marvin Hohneke, 69, said. "Food prices are getting pretty darn high. Milk is pretty near $3 a gallon."

Across the capital city of Iowa, the state that holds the first contests in the process to nominate parties' presidential candidates on January 3, the same worries surfaced at a campaign stop for Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"Keeping the tax cuts permanent -- I'm middle class and we're the ones that benefit from the tax cuts. I'm afraid of a president who will put those taxes back up," said pastor Chris Magnell, 34. "Fiscal issues are probably number one for me."

While the endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama by TV star Oprah Winfrey was competing for media attention with questions about Romney's Mormonism and immigrant gardeners in recent days, economists say the November 2008 presidential election could come down to voter pocketbooks.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll released on Tuesday showed 29 percent of voters said the economy was their top issue in the presidential campaign, compared with 23 percent who listed the Iraq war. For the first time in four years, a majority of Americans, 57 percent, believe the country is in a recession.

ECONOMIC WORRIES