I played with the EC map at 270towin.com and I think OH will be the Ground Zero of the 2012 election. If Romney wins it, he is going to be President for sure. Nothing else matters. 306 R 232 D. If Obama wins OH, he can win by a close margin, 271 to 267.
We’ll have to see how it goes with the vice presidential debate and the remaining presidential debates that are going to be held this month before we can say for sure which man is going to win this fall.
If Romney wins every Southern state plus Iowa, Nevada, and Colorado, he wins.
OF: CO, FL, IA, NC, NH, NV, OH, VA, WI
I rate them as follows (from most to least probable for Romney):
NC (+3), OH (+2) , NV (+2), NH (+2), FL (0), VA (0), IA (-1), CO (-2), WI (-2)
I’m thinking NC is moving off the table.
I’m thinking we’re looking good in OH, NV and NH
I’m thinking FL and VA are ground zero.. Technically, we could win without Florida, but that would mean carrying al the other battleground states. If we carry FL but not VA, we could still win by carrying any one of CO, IA and WI, in addition to NC, OH, NV and NH.
So, I’m thinking FL is back to ground zero; but, because of the closeness and the size of the following four states, I think we will see the candidates devoting a lot of time, advertising and field operatives in FL, OH and VA.
As of right now, with continued good luck among the dwindling undecideds, and with some of the Johnson supporters shifting to Romney, I’m thinking we’ll carrying all of the battlegrounds plus NM and PA.
Seeing good news in Colorado. It’s another ‘ground zero’ state.
This is a 5 point swing. States like NH, IA and NV are now in play or in Romney’s camp. Ohio is the ground zero swing state, but with Romney looking like he’s up a few points overall, Obama is the one with a lot of exposed truf to defend, including WI.
This race has turned a corner. It was looking shaky in September but no longer.