Ohio Slipping Away From President Obama

[deacon blues]

From The Hill:

One week from Election Day, the presidential race has tightened dramatically in Ohio, which appears more likely than any other state to decide who will win the White House.

A Rasmussen Reports survey released Monday shows Mitt Romney overtaking President Obama in Ohio for the first time since May, with 50 percent support to Obama's 48. This follows a Cincinnati Enquirer/Ohio News poll over the weekend that showed the candidates tied at 49 percent.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls still shows Obama ahead, 48.6 to 46.7 percent, but that spread might flatter the president's current position because it includes a CNN-ORC and Public Policy Polling survey, released last week, which showed him up by 4 points, and a Time magazine poll giving him a 5-point lead.

With perhaps only a handful of true toss-up states left, Ohio could prove indispensable for each campaign in their quest for the 270 Electoral College votes necessary for victory.

It could be especially important for Romney, whom prevailing punditry says has a narrower path to victory. No Republican has ever lost Ohio and won the presidency. Without Ohio, Romney would have to run the table of remaining battleground states, and carry Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Colorado, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Virginia, Florida and North Carolina have moved in Romney’s way, polls suggest, but remain close. Polls in Iowa, Colorado and New Hampshire show the candidates tied. But a growing Hispanic population in Nevada, plus Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) campaign infrastructure there, may already have put that state beyond the GOP challenger’s reach. It is this that makes Ohio so important in Republican efforts to take the White House.

But Obama can scarcely afford to lose Ohio either. With Romney apparently leading in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, Obama would have to carry New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada if he were to lose Ohio.

But a loss for the president in Ohio would probably spell trouble for Obama in those other must-win states, too. If Ohio goes red, it would probably indicate that he was struggling in other battlegrounds as well. Indeed, polls in states such as Minnesota, once considered a lock for president, have recently tightened along with rest of race.

Both campaigns are talking up their advantages in Ohio, hoping to influence how the race there is perceived and thus produce a snowball effect in voters' minds.

On Monday, the Romney campaign sent out a memo from senior adviser and Ohio state director Scott Jennings outlining what it says is evidence of Romney’s surge there.

“The next-to-last weekend before the election produced fresh evidence of Mitt Romney’s momentum in Ohio and bolsters our belief that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are poised to win the Buckeye State’s 18 electoral votes,” the memo read. “The state of the race in Ohio shows a dead heat, with Romney tracking toward victory on Election Day. The daydream Chicago was having a few weeks ago about Ohio coming off the board has been replaced by their nightmare of Romney momentum fueled by our ticket’s performance, our goal-shattering ground game, and an unmistakable feeling among independent voters that Barack Obama has no plan for the next four years.”

The memo cited the Cincinnati Enquirer/Ohio News poll, the campaign’s grassroots efforts, crowd sizes at campaign events, newspaper endorsements and early-voting numbers.

Romney and Obama each have four newspaper endorsements in the state; The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon-Journal, the Youngstown Vindicator, and the Toledo Blade have picked Obama, while the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Marietta Times and Warren Tribune Chronicle went for Romney.

The Obama campaign also believes it has a strong grassroots presence in Ohio, but points particularly to what it says is a big advantage with early voters. The campaign circulated a memo this month claiming to be well ahead of Romney among early voters and recent polling seems to back this up. Time magazine's poll last week showed Obama with a two-to-one lead among Ohio early voters.

It may be a late night of ballot counting in Ohio on election night. But if it is not, with the state on Eastern Standard Time, announcement of a winner might could have a heavy influence on voters in many of remaining swing states, where polls will still be open.

[Sam]

In the last presidential election, more votes were counted than there were voters in the Columbus (capital city of Ohio) area. We found that out after Obama was declared the winner in Ohio. My wife and I watched as the different states were "called" for the candidates. When we saw that Ohio was "called" for Obama we knew that it was over.

Sadly, prior to the election the Republican party in Ohio had appealed to the State Attorney General about irregularities in the voter registration process. The Attorney General, a Democrat, refused to hear them.

After the election, some on the news laughed and bragged on tv about how many times they had voted.

Do we even have a chance here in Ohio?

[Sam]

a protest in Mason, OH

about 1/2 and hour from where I live. A former mayor of Mason was among the demonstrators

http://masonbuzz.com/2012/10/30/cons...mpaign-office/

Conservative activists in Mason gathered outside the Obama re-election campaign office Tuesday to protest what they say is an Obama administration “cover-up” of the events in Benghazi during an attack on a U.S. consulate there last month.

The group of about eight demonstrators, who call themselves Veterans for Truth and dub their campaign the Libya Truth Project, organized independently, but come as part of statewide effort taking place through Election Day.

The Mason group will march again from 3-6 p.m. Tuesday and again on Wednesday outside the office at 108 West Main Street.

In Cincinnati, tea party activists and others will gather at Fountain Square downtown Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. for a press conference, prayer and march to protest “the growing deception surrounding Benghazi and honor those killed in this terrorist attack,” according to a news release issued by organizers.

“We’re veterans, we’re patriots and we think we deserve answers from the Commander in Chief,” said Don Prince, a Vietnam veteran who’s organizing the Mason demonstrations.

The Sept. 11 attack on the consulate, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, has become a heated campaign issue between President Barack Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Several White House officials initially attributed the violence to protests over an anti-Mohammad video made in the U.S. that caused massive protests across the Middle East, and said it was not premeditated. Obama and other officials have since said the incident was a deliberate terrorist attack.

Romney and other Republicans have accused the Obama administration of trying to cover up details of the attack, in part because it would weaken one of Obama’s key campaign selling points. In campaign speeches, Obama has cited the killing of Osama bin Laden as one of the campaign pledges he has fulfilled.

White House officials have rejected the criticism, saying their explanations changed as more information about the attack became available. The FBI, a Clinton-appointed panel and Congress are investigating the attacks.

Prince, a Mason city councilman and former mayor, said he was concerned about news reports that claim the White House Situation Room viewed real-time video stream of the attacks. White House officials say there was no video stream available.

“I heard (reports) on Fox News, on Hannity, on Glenn Beck,” said Prince. “They were fully aware of what was going on. If that’s true, it’s a disgrace that we didn’t help those people.”

Another demonstrator, Scott Pierce, of Mason, criticized the Obama administration for refusing to explain lax security at the consulate and whether pleas for help on the ground in Libya were denied during the attack.

When asked similar questions by reporters in recent days, Obama has repeated his call for a thorough investigation

“Our country deserves answers from the Commander in Chief,” said Pierce, who served in the U.S. Navy for six years in the 1970s. “The president’s number one job is to defend our sovereign soil. I respect him, I honor that position and all I want to know is, sir, why did we not respond when they asked for help?”