WSJ/NBC Poll: Romney Trails in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia

     Yep, the liberal pollsters are after him again. Remember Mitt, it's all just a conspiracy. Just listen to Sean Hannity, Dick Morris, and Karl Rove: they'll tell you what you want to hear.

     "The latest NBC/WSJ/Marist swing state surveys of Ohio, Florida and Virginia do not hold good news for Mitt Romney following the two weeks of party conventions."

      "President Obama leads Ohio, a crucial battleground, by seven points, according to the surveys. He leads by five points in the other two. And the undecideds are few."

      "The polls were taken from Sept. 9 through Sept. 11, during a window when national surveys have indicated a convention bump for the president. Romney's campaign has warned the media against reading too much into the post-campaign "sugar high."

     "The Florida and Virginia numbers aren't such a wide divide."

      "But the numbers in Ohio roughly match up with internal surveys conducted by both Democrats and Republicans recently, and it is a state where Romney's campaign knows it has a battle. The auto bailout and the ads from the pro-Obama super PAC slamming Romney's business record have had an impact, and the Republican needs a couple of things to happen, including a mistake by the president either in office, or at the debates next month."

     http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/09/nbcwsj-poll-obama-leads-in-florida-virginia-ohio-135507.html?hp=l1

     I love this narrative about it all coming down to the debates. First it was Paul Ryan, then it was Tampa, now the debates are going to save Mitt. I wonder if his attack on the U.S. embassy is an example of the kind of thing he's going to say to somehow in a couple of hours make up for running a losing campaign for 6 months.

     I will award a prize to the person who can actually show me an example of an American Presidential race where the debate totally reversed the current of an entire election. I don't mean one where the debate was simply important or had a major impact-certainly 1960 would fit that bill.

     I mean where a candidate trailed continually throughout an entire election and then suddenly caught fire because of something he said in a debate and swept to victory.

     I'm not sure why the 5 point deficits in Florida and Virginia "aren't such a wide divide", perhaps there's an assumption that it's just a temporary bump. We'll see how long the bounce lasts but it may well turn out to be the turning point in this race.

     I should add that the most potentially significant thing about these polls is that they suggest that Obama's convention bounce may be seeping through to the states. There was another poll today that showed Romney down by 8 now in Michigan.