Last week’s polling is now reflecting what the national trends have been reporting for some time: The presidential race continues to get closer.
During the past week, 12 polls were conducted in nine different places, all top and secondary battleground regions. The locations are, as you would expect by this time: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado and the 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska. You will remember that Nebraska splits its Electoral Votes, thereby allowing each of the state’s three congressional districts to award their own vote. In 2008, President Obama carried the 2nd District, giving him an extra national tally. In at least one 2012 scenario, the NE-2 vote could determine the difference between a tie or a two-vote win for one of the contenders, hence it remains important. In the dozen polls pulled from these domains, President Obama leads in nine of them, Mitt Romney two, and one place, the Commonwealth of Virginia, records a tie.
Two points merit attention. First, the average distance between the two candidates from this latest myriad of polls is only 3.75 percent.
Second, the peripheral target states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Nevada are already coming into range. Historical standards, despite the president holding small leads in almost all of these polls, suggest that Romney is actually in favorable position as a challenger.
Be cognizant of the fact that we are still in the pre-Labor Day period and that the crystallizing movement in a presidential race normally comes much later in the election cycle, usually in October. With Obama and Romney already running about even, this campaign promises to pack quite an exlplosive finish.
