NBC pollster Chuck Todd appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today and said he has seen data showing that the presidential race has undergone a “structural change” since the first debate. That change gives hope to Romney and his supporters.
TODD: I have to say, in the private data that I’ve heard about over the last couple of days, the last 72 hours, plus what you’re seeing, I feel like there has been a structural shift. We’re no longer in this “It’s even, but, the president has these advantages.” The “but the president has these advantages in the battleground states” I think is gone. I mean, yes the president has an advantages in Ohio, but we’re starting to see a consistent, very narrow, a Romney lead in places like Florida. We’re seeing Colorado dead even. Iowa closing. So I think that there is something structural that happened.
I have an idea of what’s driving that structural change. Romney used the first debate to make the sale to voters who are dissatisfied with Obama but had not yet met Mitt. They met him at that debate, and they liked him. He was nothing like the evil caricature that the Obama campaign had presented of him. He was energetic and informed, while Obama was ill-informed and out of his depth. Romney’s performance gave many voters the permission they were looking for, to fire Obama.
If my hunch is right, Obama will have a very hard time overcoming that image from the first debate. He lost a whole lot of ground. He may come out more aggressive, as his campaign has said he will, but if he is aggressive while he is also full of the same empty rhetoric he offered last time, he will come off as another Joe Biden.
More: So the debate pushed a few undecideds into deciding. What about the rest? Try…HypnoRomney!
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