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Election 2012: Obama, Romney in dead heat – Obama has upper hand
Looking A Lot Like 2000, And 2004
The tightening race has created many different scenarios, including the possibility that the Electoral College winner will not capture the most votes nationwide – similar to what happened in 2000, when Republican George W. Bush got more electoral votes than Democrat Al Gore, who received more of the popular vote.
The prominence of Ohio also has invoked memories of 2004, when Bush won re-election over Democrat John Kerry in the early hours of the morning after Election Day by a margin of less than 120,000 votes in the Midwestern state.
Both candidates are pouring time and resources into Ohio, where Obama has held a steady lead for months and now has an average poll advantage of more than 2 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
Holding On In The Midwest?
Romney, a wealthy former private equity executive who opposed the Obama-backed federal bailout of the auto industry, has struggled to connect with blue-collar voters in Ohio, where one in eight jobs is tied to the auto industry and the state unemployment rate is lower than the national average of 7.8 percent.
Iowa and Wisconsin, where RealClearPolitics puts Obama’s average lead at between two and three percentage points, also have lower state unemployment rates than nationally.
