One day out: Obama and Romney race to the finish
Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney walks in front of his campaign airplane in Newington, New Hampshire, at left, and at right, President Obama disembarks from Air Force One at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire. / Getty
After nearly $2 billion in spending, scores of attacks and counterattacks, hundreds of campaign stops and more ads than most anyone could count, the 2012 presidential race is finally - and many would say mercifully - coming to an end.
But it's not quite there yet: The two major party candidates, exhausted though they may be, will spend all day Monday making last-minute appeals in battleground states. And where they've chosen to go during the home stretch highlights what polls show to be a very tight race.
Both candidates made it to four states on Sunday to rally supporters: President Obama was in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio and Colorado, while Mitt Romney traveled to Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
It's no surprise that both men stopped in Ohio, the most fiercely-contested battleground state in the nation. Both candidates have visited the Buckeye State more than any other: Mr. Obama has campaigned there 22 times, including Monday's planned stop, and Mr. Romney has campaigned or will campaign there 25 times.
Obama, Romney race tight, Sandy effect still unclear
Why so much focus on Ohio? Because both candidates have a far easier path to the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House if they secure it. For Romney, in particular, Ohio's 18 electoral votes are crucial. If Mr. Obama wins Ohio as well as Nevada, which looks likely to break for the president, he will be just nine electoral votes short of what he needs for reelection - assuming he takes all the states he is expected to win.
Without Ohio, Romney would need a near sweep of the remaining battlegrounds to take the White House; polls suggest he holds a clear lead in just one of those states, North Carolina. Two polls out over the weekend, meanwhile, showed Mr. Obama with a five point lead in Iowa, where a victory would give the president another six electoral votes. (The remaining battleground states, as identified by CBS News: Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin. Polls suggest the first four are effectively tossups; Mr. Obama has been polling slightly ahead in Wisconsin, which boasts 10 electoral votes.) Most recent polls have found Mr. Obama with a small lead in Ohio, though a Columbus Dispatch survey out Sunday suggested the two candidates are effectively tied.
There is one state the Romney campaign seems to be hoping will rewrite the Ohio-or-bust calculus: Pennsylvania. For most of the campaign, polls showed Mr. Obama with a clear lead in the state, and the Romney campaign largely ignored it. But buoyed by a poll last week suggesting the state's 20 electoral votes are within Romney's reach, the Romney campaign and the outside groups supporting it poured money into the Keystone State.
While Pennsylvania remains a relative long shot for Romney, his decision to stop in the state Sunday, during the precious final days of the campaign, is a signal that the investment may be more than just a head fake. The Romney camp has also said it is fighting for two other states where he faces long odds - Michigan and Minnesota - though the fact that Romney himself is not visiting either during the home stretch suggests he is most focused on Pennsylvania. The campaign did dispatch Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, to Minnesota on Sunday.
"The people of America understand we're taking back the White House because we're going to win Pennsylvania," Romney said at a rally in Morrisville Sunday evening. The Obama campaign has portrayed Romney's Pennsylvania play as a "Hail Mary" tied to his inability to lock down the more contested battlegrounds.
Romney continued to push his message Sunday that Mr. Obama deserves to be voted out because he had failed to sufficiently bring the economy back from the 2008 financial crisis; in a new ad, he suggested the president is "offering excuses," while he has a plan that will allow America to come "roaring back." He also said Mr. Obama has been a divisive figure more interested in pushing "a liberal agenda" than fixing the economy.
"We're Americans. We can do anything," Romney said in Iowa Sunday. "The only thing that stands between us and some of the best years we can imagine is a lack of leadership , and that's why we have elections."
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Zann: Voted already. Jill Stein was on my ballot so I was happy to vote for her as Kentucky is so RED it wasn't going to affect the outcome.
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Me too! Very carefully I marked those boxes starting with Barack Obama!
: )
I also took great pleasure in voting against Louie Gohmert!
I didn't vote straight Democrat though, if there was a Democrat they got my vote. If there was a Rep against a Green Party - Green Party got my vote! If there was a Rep against a Libertarian - the Libertarian got my vote - the Repubs have GOT to go!!!!!!!!
: )
And just so someone doesn't accuse me of voting along "party lines" - I'll have you know I also voted for One Republican! She was running for District Attorney....she was running unopposed....but that's beside the point! LOL!
And get out and VOTE early in the morning!
I think we should take our own poll tomorrow and see who wins!
I'm curious if our results would match the countries!
OBAMA 2012 : )
Oh My God!
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Not really Zann. There was a LOT of stuff that went on when you weren't around on several occasions. Dan was bullying and threatening several people and this is just sort time to vent over his behavior. Odd that he's afraid of me when he claims to be so powerful though.
Can't have a double standard!
The probable marriage of a male and female may always carry the potential for newer creative life reproductions,yet legal homosexual(same sex) preference bonding is not the result of any honest sexual orientation and can only be labeled as a mirage, the product of unchallenged minds, no reproductions.
However, if Romney is elected, he must also become seriously challenged by women's rights and democrats toward efforts reversing much of his religious views which are based on folklore and immaturity and I believe he must reverse a few of his more personal, self-confused belief structures!
William Gramitt
Newport, RI
(Edit at will)
The most important reason to vote FOR Obama is to maintain the healthy mental, physical and spiritual conditions of the American culture and not merely our economy, which can only be fixed when both parties agree.
Bishop Romney believes he will be God! This is the God he prays to. Do not forsake the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob when you vote tomorrow.
If you were to have said that at any point after you got banned, there would be no need to be talking about it anymore. But instead you point the finger at others and blame them because "they" didn't get banned, and then you try to "minimize" the situation by claiming it's THEIR fault for not taking it as a joke. Then you even go as far to talk about how it's no big deal because everybody does it.
All imaginary justifications to remain in denial of your offense.
And taxes aren't robbing me to give it to someone else?
Let me Splain You Lucy, taxes fund the government that takes care of the commons. It costs money to have built our country and it takes money to keep it up. Government is what we all decide to do together.
But when we have greedy businessman like Robbed Me who do not think that taxes should be paid my THEM, then we ALL have to make up the difference. This is one of the real dangers of having greedy, inefficient corporations run a country. And Robbed Me Ryan want to make it much, much worse for all of us.
Bishop Romney believes he will be God! This is the God he prays to. Do not forsake the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob when you vote tomorrow.
Come on.