A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the important percentages in this year's presidential race. One of them, of course, was "47%," which had gained notoriety after the release of the secretly-made videotape of a Mitt Romney speech to large contributors.
Now, with two weeks to go until Election Day, we're back to talking about 47% again. This time, however, it's because yesterdya's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has Mitt Romney and Barack Obama tied at 47% each in a national poll. Of course, the poll has a margin of error (between 3 and 4 percentage points), so we shouldn't take these results literally. However, we know that the race has been close for a few months, and for the most part, Mitt Romney has been closing the gap over the past several days.
Tonight's third and final debate is the last chance the candidates have to score points with voters in a more spontaneous forum (compared to TV ads and prepared speeches). It will be interesting to see if President Obama can convince voters that our standing in the world has improved, or if Mitt Romney can persuade voters that our foreign policy can be better.
In all of this, don't forget that a fair number of people have already voted through various ways (absentee ballots or early in-person voting in some states). Should something unusual happen in this last debate -- or in the next two weeks -- it won't change the votes that already have been cast.
John Klemanski
Now, with two weeks to go until Election Day, we're back to talking about 47% again. This time, however, it's because yesterdya's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has Mitt Romney and Barack Obama tied at 47% each in a national poll. Of course, the poll has a margin of error (between 3 and 4 percentage points), so we shouldn't take these results literally. However, we know that the race has been close for a few months, and for the most part, Mitt Romney has been closing the gap over the past several days.
Tonight's third and final debate is the last chance the candidates have to score points with voters in a more spontaneous forum (compared to TV ads and prepared speeches). It will be interesting to see if President Obama can convince voters that our standing in the world has improved, or if Mitt Romney can persuade voters that our foreign policy can be better.
In all of this, don't forget that a fair number of people have already voted through various ways (absentee ballots or early in-person voting in some states). Should something unusual happen in this last debate -- or in the next two weeks -- it won't change the votes that already have been cast.
John Klemanski
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