Obama and Romney close now but GOP sees undecideds going their way

(CBS News) President Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are in a close race now but the president's approval rating below 50 percent is good news for his rival, a former Republican party chairman said Tuesday.

"When you look at President Obama's numbers, he's consistently somewhere between, you know, 44 and 47 percent, which historically is a danger zone for an incumbent president running for re-election," Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie said on "CBS This Morning."

Gillespie noted that most voters have already formed an opinion about Mr. Obama.

"Often, at the end of an election with an incumbent president, the undecideds tend to break pretty strongly in favor of the challenger candidate," Gillespie said.

Still, Gillespie cautioned that the nation is pretty evenly divided, especially in the crucial "swing states" that will decide the election.

"As you look at the nationwide surveys and the surveys in critical swing states that will make a difference in terms of the electoral college outcome, Gov. Romney and President Obama remain close," Gillespie said.

The former adviser to President George W. Bush said Romney's vision for fixing the economy is starkly different from the current administration and starts with an across the board cut in discretionary spending.

"We have too much government spending and we have too little revenue coming in because we have 8.2 percent unemployment," Gillespie said.