Romney's Compassion

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he would do a better job of helping the poor than President Barack Obama as he tries to recover from a secret video that showed him dismissing nearly half the electorate as dependent on government help.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MITT ROMNEY SAYING:

"We measure compassion, not just how we care for one another how, important as that is, we measure compassion not just by how many people who are able to get unemployment benefits because they are out of work and how many people are on food stamps, we measure compassion by how many people can get off unemployment, by how many people can get a good job, how many people can off of food stamps, that's compassion, having an economy so strong that it lifts all Americans."

Romney is now hoping to frame the presidential election as a choice between big government and economic growth.

A Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll showed Obama leading Romney 48 percent to 43 percent among likely voters