“As Mitt Romney gains ground in crucial states like Florida and Virginia, President Obama is taking steps to shore up support in smaller battlegrounds that could prove decisive in a razor-close race,” Politico reports.
“That’s because if Romney can’t put Ohio in his column — the Buckeye State has so far proved stubbornly immune to the Republican’s gains elsewhere — he’ll need to win most of the remaining swing states to capture the presidency.”
After Mitt Romney made an awkward comment at the last presidential debate, Amazon customers are leaving hilarious reviews of binders.
Nate Silver comments on the Gallup tracking poll which shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama by seven points today — results which “are deeply inconsistent with the results that other polling firms are showing in the presidential race, and the Gallup poll has a history of performing very poorly when that is the case.”
“In 2000, for example, Gallup had George W. Bush 16 points ahead among likely voters in polling it conducted in early August. By Sept. 20, about six weeks later, they had Al Gore up by 10 points instead: a 26-point swing toward Mr. Gore over the course of a month and a half. No other polling firm showed a swing remotely that large. Then in October 2000, Gallup showed a 14-point swing toward Mr. Bush over the course of a few days, and had him ahead by 13 points on Oct. 27 — just 10 days before an election that ended in a virtual tie.”
Here are the latest polls from the battleground states, updated through the day:
Colorado: Obama 50%, Romney 47% (Public Policy Polling)
Iowa: Obama 51%, Romney 43% (NBC News/Marist)
Florida: Obama 47%, Romney 44% (Newsmax/Zogby)
Michigan: Obama 52%, Romney 46% (EPIC-MRA)
Michigan: Obama 44%, Romney 41% (Denno Research)
North Carolina: Romney 52%, Obama 46% (Rasmussen)
Ohio: Obama 49%, Romney 48% (Rasmussen)
Pennsylvania: Romney 49%, Obama 45% (Susquehanna)
Virginia: Obama 49%, Romney 48% (Public Policy Polling)
Wisconsin: Obama 51%, Romney 45% (NBC News/Marist)
Chris Cillizza: “Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Romney loses women on Nov. 6 by 8.5 points — his average deficit in those three polls among registered voters… That would be a better showing among women than John McCain made in 2008 (lost women by 13), George Bush made in 2000 (lost women by 11) and Bob Dole made in 1996 (lost women by 16). It would be roughly equal to the eight-point margin that George H.W. Bush lost women to Bill Clinton in 1992.”
“So, for all of the chatter about Romney’s women problems, he is currently positioned to do as well or better than every Republican presidential candidate among female voters save one: George W. Bush in 2004 who lost among women by just three points to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.”
Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca “is once again endorsing a presidential nominee – and once again, it’s the challenger he’s picking,” the Detroit Free Press reports.
While he didn’t make an endorsement four years ago, he supported John Kerry in 2004 and George W. Bush in 2000.
Interestingly, Iacocca supported the Obama administration’s bailout of General Motors and Chrysler.
Ahead of next week’s presidential debate on foreign policy, a new Pew Research poll finds that President Obama and Mitt Romney run about even on most foreign policy issues.
On the question of who can do a better job making wise decisions about foreign policy, 47% of voters favor Obama and 43% Romney. This represents a substantial gain for Romney, who trailed Obama by 15 points on foreign policy issues in September.
Here are the latest daily tracking polls:
Gallup: Romney 52%, Obama 45%
IBD/TIPP: Obama 46%, Romney 46%
Public Policy Polling: Obama 48%, Romney 48%
Rasmussen: Romney 49%, Obama 47%
Gawker reports a mysterious new website promising “an October Surprise that will change the 2012 election.”
The big news — which is hinted in blurry teaser documents — will be unveiled at 5:30 PM ET on October 22nd.
Let the speculation begin.
Update: BuzzFeed reports the site is run by the same people who did “Greatest Rickroll Ever.”
“We messed it up, he didn’t fix it, put us back in.”
— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by TPM, paraphrasing Mitt Romney’s campaign message.
A new Hartford Courant poll in Connecticut shows Chris Murphy (D) leading Linda McMahon (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 44% to 38%.
Meanwhile, President Obama has a healthy 51% to 37% lead over Mitt Romney in the presidential race.
Here’s a fun new game for your iPhone, iPad or Android phone: Election Game 2012: Race for the White House.
You’re the campaign manager: Pick your candidate, raise campaign funds, make advertising buys, book television appearances, rally volunteers or resort to dirty tricks to outmaneuver and smear your opponent. These are just a few of the options this election game has to offer.
It’s a free download and highly recommended.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Massachusetts finds Elizabeth Warren (D) with a nine-point lead over Sen. Scott Brown (R), 53% to 44%.
A new Washington Post poll finds a majority of likely voters in Maryland support an upcoming ballot question on same-sex marriage by a slight majority, 52% to 43%.
The AP notes Mitt Romney’s campaign is looking for more routes to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
“They are weighing whether to shift resources from North Carolina, where Republicans express confidence of winning, into states long considered safe territory for President Barack Obama, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.”
First Read: “This also caught our eye yesterday: Romney didn’t mention Libya — or the exchange on the topic from Tuesday’s debate — during two campaign stops in Virginia yesterday. Instead, Romney focused on the economy and what he said was Obama’s failure to lay out a vision for a second term.”
“By the way, it’s worth echoing what Mike Allen wrote this morning in Politico: This is the SECOND time Romney has given Obama a political ‘get out of jail’ free card on Libya. It only raises the stakes for Romney for the third debate, focused solely on foreign policies. He has to be very careful not to walk into any more rhetorical traps which are much easier to fall into on an issue that isn’t second nature to the challenger.”
President Obama “plans to hold his election-night rally at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, a move aimed at easing concerns over weather and security,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
“Given the indoor location, the event seems unlikely to match the electric atmosphere of Obama’s 2008 outdoor victory rally in Grant Park. That event drew an estimated 240,000 people downtown and created picturesque images of the city’s skyline that were seen worldwide.”
President Obama “is prepared to veto legislation to block year-end tax hikes and spending cuts, collectively known as the ‘fiscal cliff,’ unless Republicans bow to his demand to raise tax rates for the wealthy,” the Washington Post reports.
“Freed from the political and economic constraints that have tied his hands in the past, Obama is ready to play hardball with Republicans, who have so far successfully resisted a deal to tame the debt that includes higher taxes… In the days after the November election, the tables will be turned: Taxes are scheduled to rise dramatically in January for people at all income levels, and Republicans will be unable to stop those automatic increases alone.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.