Ads are placed by Google and should not be taken as an endorsement by this website.
As predicted previously, now that Romney has secured the Republican nomination his side is rallying around him and the most recent national poll numbers show a tightening race. Romney has even taken the lead from President Obama in several of them. But as readers of this site are well aware, national polls do not decide the race. Unfortunately this far from election day state by state polls are not updated as often as we junkies might like. Therefore they usually lag behind what we observe in national polls.
Nevertheless, Romney is making a push in the electoral college vote. Ohio and Virginia are his best bets to steal from the President's column, while Missouri, North Carolina, and Arizona seem to be solidifying behind him. Holding what he has now and taking those two additional states will not be enough though. New Hampshire, Iowa, and Colorado could be in play and at least one will be a requirement to reach the White House right now.
Obama needs to hold on tight to what he has. The easiest way for him to lose is to let too many historically conservative voting states move back to the Republicans. But the President also needs to watch his base. While states like New Mexico and Minnesota are lining up strongly behind him, other Democratic strongholds like Oregon and Wisconsin are creeping towards the right.
As has been the norm for the past decade or so, Florida and Ohio are shaping up to be very tight and very important to both candidates. Win both and your road to victory becomes much easier.
For this update the only big move from last time is Virginia to Romney... but just barely. I was tempted to also movie Ohio, but I think we need another update to see if that is really the trend. So for now, Obama leads but the Republican candidate is closing in.
