Politics
Election 2012: Obama looking more likely to win 2nd term
U.S. President Barack Obama, (l) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. PHOTO/AP
Five weeks to U.S. Election Day, President Barack Obama is within reach of the 270 electoral votes needed to win a second term, while Republican Mitt Romney’s path to victory is narrowing, polls suggest.
To overtake Obama, Romney would need to quickly gain the upper hand in nearly all of the nine states where he and Obama are competing the hardest.
Polls show the president with a steady lead in many of them as Romney looks to shift the dynamics of the race, starting with their first debate Wednesday in Denver.
“We’d rather be us than them,” says Jennifer Psaki, an Obama spokeswoman.
But Romney’s political director, Rich Beeson, insists, “You still have an incumbent who’s going to have a hard time getting over 50 percent in a lot of these states.”
If the election were held today, an Associated Press analysis shows Obama would win at least 271 electoral votes, with likely victories in crucial Ohio and Iowa along with 19 other states and the District of Columbia. Romney would win 23 states for a total of 206.
To oust the Democratic incumbent, Romney would need to take up-for-grabs Florida, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia, which would put him at 267 votes, and upend Obama in either Ohio or Iowa.
