Posted on 10/31/2012 7:27:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Barack Obama has seen a once-steady lead in Michigan decline to just 2 points in a recent poll, and Michigan has been thrown into "toss-up" status in the election's final week.
The poll, from The Detroit News, finds Obama leading Republican rival Mitt Romney, 47.7 percent to 45 percent. That's the second poll in a week that has shown an increasingly tight race in the state, including a Foster McCollum White Baydoun poll that showed the race virtually tied. And it comes as a pro-Romney super PAC, American Crossroads, includes Michigan in its $50 million, final-week ad buy.
Intriguingly, when comparing the Michigan poll to a new poll of Ohio released today, it shows that the race in Michigan is actually closer.
The key points in the new poll:
* What's pushing Romney to a virtual statistical tie in the state is his clear advantage on trust in handling the economy. He leads the president, 47-44, on the crucial issue, even in a state dominated by the auto industry.
* Compared with September, men have shifted 5 points more toward Romney.
* What's keeping Obama afloat: His advantage in connecting with voters who think he "understands their values." Forty-eight percent identified with Obama on that question, compared with just 43 percent for Romney.
* Obama also has a significant, 8-point advantage on handling foreign affairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Romney could possibly win Michigan without winning Ohio. Ohio’s been viewed as a battleground state from the get go, and is a state that Obama carpeted with ads attempting to define Romney early.
Michigan was ignored, so voters there don’t have the same initial negative impression of Romney. Their impressions likely started with the debates and have only improved since.
In other words, as I believe Dick Morris suggested a couple of weeks ago in an article, though it might have been Karl Rove instead, states like Michigan, PA, and Minnesota might be easier gets for Romney than Ohio, and Romney should go for them, which he’s now doing.
Michigan has been trending increasingly rightward for the last decade. (aside from the historic election of a black man woopie)
This "war" that supposedly occurred between Michigan and Ohio is often evoked as part of the lore of the Michigan-Ohio State football rivalry (though it occurred about 50 years before they began playing football). To the best of my knowledge, it was never a war in the sense that neither side fired any shots at the other and there were no physical casualties. It was a gentlemanly dispute over the location of the border immediately before Michigan was granted statehood by Congress. It was resolved by a compromise made in Congress that you mentioned: the northern border of Ohio (with Michigan) was specified so that Toledo was declared to be within Ohio's boundaries and Michigan was granted what is now the Upper Penninsula, which at the time was just part of the Northwest Territories. No bloodshed, though.
My late wife’s family lives in Holland (though they are still my in-laws as far as I am concerned) so I know how conservative the area is. I met her in Detroit while we were both attending Wayne St.
Living in Chicago I understand how easy it is to paint an entire city or state with misleading colors. I feel as safe in my neighborhood as I do in Holland and have no fear of even leaving a door unlocked if need be for a while.
The Toledo strip dispute was settled through the political manipulations of Andrew Jackson I believe. He promised Ohio the Toledo strip if Ohio could deliver the democrat vote.
They delivered Ohio for the democrats but lost the election anyway. The Upper Peninsula turned out to be far more valuable.
Just saw the history of this on local “Toledo Stories.” The Michigan militia and the Ohio militia had skirmishes back and forth. Someone was shot, but was not killed and there was a kidnapping, with a few people being taken up to Monroe for imprisonment. The Toledoans/Ohio militia ran to Fort Meigs for safety.
Michigan certainly got the better deal.
That sunset was UNBELIEVABLE. Couldn’t get my camera to a spot to photograph fast enough. I think the impending storm caused the brilliant colors.
However, I digress. Back to their regularly scheduled Michigan bashing. ;)
Since 2000,Farr has frequently donated to the Republican National Committee.[11]
it used to be that the majority of Arabs in this country were CHRISTIANS.....not sure if that has changed...
Here is the Little Manistee River about 100 yards from my home. If things get better in the political sense I will retire there.
I can taste the trout from here.
“The voters of Michigan must be a lot dumber than I originally thought. How can a president “handle foreign affairs” when he is negligent in protecting the life of his own ambassador? How can a president “handle foreign affairs” when he bows to a Saudi prince? How can a president “handle foreign affairs” when he disses allies such as the UK, Israel, and Poland, and helps to undermine the allied Mubarek regime in Egypt in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood? And, oh yes, he’s endorsed for re-election by the likes of Chavez and Castro!
Do these voters in Michigan actually agree with this? Are they Americans or are they communists and or/Islamists?”
Remember Dearborne, where people are threatened with arrested for counterdemonstrating as Christians, or having an Israeli flag? There’s also Ann Arbor. Can’t find links for the size of the Islamic population in Michigan, but it’s up there. So yes, there’s a sizable number of voters that consider everything Obama has done abroad to be peachy keen.
The signs are all pointing to exactly that, a 'shock' to the media and the true believers. I do think the Obama campaign knows it's going to lose and is now just trying to keep it respectable. In 2008, I really wanted to believe that Obama would lose. Looking at the polls, especially the internals, and watching where and how much money was being spent convinced me of the inevitable. This year has the same feel for Obama. He's retreating, his campaign is coming apart, and it could be a very bad night for him.
Landslide gets tossed around too much, and the country is too far down the rabbit hole for a Nixon (23%) or Reagan (18%) blowout, but it is looking like 2012 will be a complete repudiation of Obama and the Dems. I think 53-54% of the vote for Romney and 330+ electoral votes.
Dearborn (with no e) is still majority white ethnic.
It will give us all great pleasure to put Governor Romney in the White House and repudiate both Zero and the rest of his Demagogic Party.
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