either one of them has had some momentum, it s maybe moved their number a point or two, but and moved the other guy s number down a point or two but not much. we are seeing almost all of the battlegrounds at some form of a standstill, maybe moving half a point here, half a point there. where you see evidence of romney s uptick in the national polls playing out in the states or in the nonbattleground states, the ones that have been left off, pennsylvania is a classic example, minnesota, but i m going to throw in california as well, it s all of these places where romney is now polling better, particularly in better shape than john mccain was. there has been no engagement so there s there has been a better opportunity for him there, andrea. i think that s what you re seeing here a little bit and i think the obama campaign realizes they have to respond. and what about the des moines register editorial, we say editorials don t make a lot of difference but iowa is where
which is the good old-fashioned, well, which candidate is on his message at the right time, seems to be peaking, and that s romney, right? so the two different forces are converging. and i think in the battleground states, it s left this muddy picture. but i think that s why you see in a pennsylvania and a minnesota where the campaign itself hasn t interacted very much where romney s gotten more benefit of the doubt. so there is some consistency in the nonbattleground states. and when you talk about split, you re talking about mitt romney winning the popular vote and the president possibly winning the electoral college. that s right, yes. mike barnicle? i m just wondering, you know, which campaign at this stage, chuck, do you think has the better ground game? because you just get the distinct impression with the storm in certain sections of the country, turnout is going to be key. which campaign has the best ground game to get their vote out? well, i think that the campaign t
special. he thought one thing that was happening is in nonbattleground states, romney enthusiasm was so strong that they were trying to run up the popular vote, which gives that ad more, on the national level, more impact. can i just say how weird it is, like how many people do you know in america who cast their vote and go home and e-mail a political scientist to ask what to make of their experience at the polls? it just tells you what a freak meacham is. but what s great about that ad, just from a purely democratic standpoint, is just that it says essentially not just your vote counts, which is what it says. but implicitly it says you don t want to go back to bush. it s just the implicit messages, don t let us and that rhymes with what the campaign s message is about, romney in general. so there s a very kind of like it s working on two levels there. and willie, 2000 continues to haunt democrats late into the night in their dreams. if you want to encourage your base to go out
they re holding back on hiring because the costs of obama care are so high. let s head right to the white house and nbc s kristen welker. what s on the agenda today, kristen? hey there, craig. president obama is going to tour a high school there in columbus, ohio, and he s going to make the case that schools like it will benefit if the american jobs act passes. he s going to say that 35,000 schools, in fact, could be rebuilt. that will, of course, stimulate job growth. and he s also going to say that $5 billion will go to community colleges. we re going to see him making a lot of trips like this in the coming days. craig, tomorrow he heads to north carolina to a small business there and he ll make the case, again, that that small business will benefit if the american jobs act passes. you might note that these are battleground states. we just talked to white house officials about that. they said, yes, the president is visiting battle ground states. but he will also visit nonbattlegr