Mitt Romney campaigns in Cleveland while President Obama attends a rally in Hollywood, Nov. 4. (Courtesy: AP)
By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES
President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney remained in
a virtual tie in the latest opinion polls released Sunday, just two
days before the White House election.
As Election Day looms on Tuesday, polls show Obama has a slight but
significant lead in most of the crucial battleground states that
ultimately will determine the outcome of the presidential election.
The survey by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News gave Obama 48 percent
support and Romney 47 percent -- a statistical dead heat, given the
survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.55 percentage points.
“This poll is reflecting a very, very close campaign nationally,”
Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with
Democratic pollster Peter Hart, said in a statement.
“It’s a dead heat,” Hart added. “This election is going to be decided by turnout, turnout, turnout.”
The poll, conducted between November 1-3, sampled 1,475 likely voters.
The findings were in keeping with most national polls which find the
presidential contest too close to call.
Meanwhile, a USA Today/Gallup Poll of swing states showed voters were
evenly split, with 48 percent choosing Obama and 48 percent Romney.
However, a Pew survey found that Obama led 48 percent to 45 percent
among likely voters who already have made up their minds, with four
percent saying they remain uncommitted.
President Obama and Mitt Romney rallied deep into Sunday night and will
resume their foray into battleground states Monday morning with Election
Day now just hours away.
Romney closed the weekend with stops in Pennsylvania and Virginia,
battleground states considered critical in the quest for the 270
electoral votes it takes to win the White House.
“I know how to change the course this country is on,” Romney told a
crowd in the suburban Philadelphia town of Morrisville. “It’s something
I’m going to do as president of the United States. … Two more days and
we can get to work on rebuilding our country.”
Obama advisers, however, dismissed the trip as a sign of desperation from the challenger less than 48 hours from Election Day.
“We’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win
Pennsylvania,” Romney told a crowd put at around 30,000, according to
U.S. Secret Service estimates quoted by the campaign, who had gathered
on a farm in frigid weather.
As Mitt Romney’s campaign bus rolled through the make-or-break state of
Ohio earlier this week, the White House hopeful turned to aides in an
unguarded moment to say how much he was enjoying himself.
“This is exciting, this is what all that hard work is for,” Romney said, according to his senior advisor Kevin Madden.
The aide looked back at the 2012 campaign snapshot as indicative of the
positivity and confidence that has permeated the Romney camp -- and the
candidate himself -- just days before the biggest night of the
Republican nominee’s life on Tuesday.
“He’s really excited about the state of the campaign right now,” Madden
told AFP news agency after a late-night rally in Virginia.
In the closing days of what has been a grueling, 18-month push for the
nation’s top job, Romney was embracing what Madden described as “the
opportunity to talk to voters up until the very last minute about what
he wants to do as president.”
Obama’s last line of defense
If Obama wins Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, and avoids any upsets on his
turf, he is all but certain to become only the second Democrat to win
two White House terms since World War II.
Romney spent months trying to tear the president’s Midwestern “firewall”
but was hampered by an Obama advertising blitz hammering him as a
wealthy plutocrat who disdains the middle class.
OHIO (18)
In most recent polls, Obama led Ohio between two and five points, an
ominous sign for Romney, as no Republican since the Civil War has lost
the state and gone on to win the White House.
Obama touts his bailout of the indebted auto industry in 2009 and
Romney’s opposition to it, as one-in-eight jobs in the state are linked
to the sector.
His team believes that Romney has undermined his hopes in Ohio by
running ad an warning that Chrysler will outsource production of its
Jeep vehicles to China, a charge the company’s CEO has said is false.
Obama leads an average of polls in Ohio by the RealClearPolitics (RCP) website by 2.8 percent.
WISCONSIN (10)
Wisconsin has been solid Democratic territory for years: the last time a Republican won the state was Ronald Reagan in 1984.
But Republicans, who managed to repel an attempt by Democrats to oust
Governor Scott Walker in a recall election this year, have a solid
ground game in the state, and Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan is a local
boy.
The president leads the RCP average by 4.2 percent.
IOWA (6)
Where it all started for Obama. The president built his grass roots
operation in the agricultural heartland state and believes that after
carving out an advantage in early voting, he has the edge on Romney.
Obama leads the RCP average in Iowa by 2.5 percent.
UP FOR GRABS
FLORIDA (29)
The Sunshine State, the largest electoral battleground, is often
decisive in presidential elections, but may not be the kingmaker this
time. But Obama is competing fiercely there because if he wins, it is
all but impossible for Romney to take the White House.
A punishing foreclosure crisis and an unemployment rate higher than the
national average have many analysts expecting Florida to swing to
Romney.
Obama has led several recent polls however, and if he can get a bumper
turnout in Democratic strongholds in the southern part of the state, he
could pull off a surprise.
Romney leads the RCP average by 1.4 percent.
VIRGINIA (13)
Neither side seem to know whether the state will revert to Republicans
after Obama became the first Democrat to win there since 1964. Obama
needs to maximize turnout among students, and African American voters
around the cities of Richmond and Norfolk.
Romney will count on old school conservatives in rural areas of the
state and look to cut down on Obama’s margins with educated middle class
voters in the Washington DC suburbs.
Currently, Romney leads the RCP average by 0.3 percent.
NORTH CAROLINA (15)
The most likely state to move from Democratic to Republican because
Obama won it by only 14,000 votes in 2008. Romney aides are certain
their man will win, but the Obama camp has mobilized a massive early
voting effort, which it says will keep the president competitive into
election day.
Romney is up 3.8 percent in the RCP scoreboard.
COLORADO (9)
Romney’s best chance to grab a western swing state. Obama is relying on
women and Hispanic voters to keep him in the game here and currently
heads the RCP average by 0.6 percent.
NEW HAMPSHIRE (4)
The flinty northeastern state with an independent streak knows Romney
well after he served as governor of neighboring Massachusetts.
Obama won this state, in 2008 and leads the RCP average this year by 1.5 percent.
MAY BE OVER
The Obama campaign says it has a substantial lead after early voting which means Romney needs to win big in Election Day voting.
Obama has a powerbase among Hispanic voters, and his trip to the bowels
of a vast Las Vegas casino hotel to greet culinary workers a few weeks
ago looks to have paid off.
Obama leads Nevada by 2.8 percent in the RCP average.
ROMNEY’S LAST STAND
PENNSYLVANIA (20), MICHIGAN (16), MINNESOTA (10)
Romney will make a late swoop into Pennsylvania on Sunday after ignoring
the Keystone State for much of the campaign. Democrats say his move
shows desperation and a recognition that he cannot get to 270 electoral
votes elsewhere. Obama leads the RCP average by 3.9 percent.
Republicans have also made big advertising buys in Democratic states
Minnesota, where Obama is up by 5.8 five points, according to RCP and in
Michigan where Obama leads by 3.8 percent in the averages.
Obama aide David Axelrod is so confident that he has offered to shave his trademark moustache if Romney wins any of the trio.
Source english.alarabiya.net
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