Politics
Election 2012: Obama looking more likely to win 2nd term
Polls now show a competitive race there. Democrats boast of having registered 250,000 new voters in the state since April 2011. It’s an eye-popping total in a state that Obama won by just 14,000 votes four years ago. A flood of new voters, presumably a chunk of them Democrats, could help keep that state within Obama’s reach this year.
Also, Romney’s effort to challenge Obama in Democratic-leaning Wisconsin, home state of running mate Paul Ryan, appears to have fizzled. Despite millions of dollars spent on TV in the last few weeks by both sides, polls show Obama with a clear lead in Wisconsin.
Romney’s goal of forcing Obama to defend Michigan — Romney’s native state — and Pennsylvania never materialized.
“The big strategic moment coming out of the conventions in my view was whether or not Romney and his campaign could succeed in expanding the parameters of the battleground,” said Tad Devine, a top adviser to 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore and 2004 nominee John Kerry. “They have not been able to do that.”
All this has left Romney with an extraordinarily tight path and few options but to bear down in the states where he is competing aggressively. Time, though, is running out.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
