Romney Ahead in North Carolina
Although the 2012 presidential race between President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney appears to be even across the nation, the same cannot be said about the swing state North Carolina.
According to Real Clear Politics, Obama has been trailing Romney in North Carolina by as many as six points. Romney has held a steady lead over Obama for the entire month of October.
According to telephone voters, Romney has 52 percent of the support in comparison to just 46 percent for Obama. One percent of these voters are undecided. Ironically these voters believe Obama will win the election. Iin 2008, he was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina in 30 years.
In a poll conducted by research firm Gravis Marketing, Romney has an 8.7 percent lead over Obama. According to the Latin Times, the presidential poll shows 49.9 percent of voters likely to vote for Romney, while 41.2 percent are likely to vote for the incumbent.
Obamas to ‘Celebrate’ 20th Wedding Anniversary at Debate
Today marks an important day for President Barack Obama. It’s his 20th wedding anniversary with Michelle Obama. Unfortunately, rather than celebrating with his wife, Obama will be in Denver, Colo., for the first presidential debate against Mitt Romney.
Tonight’s debate, the first of three, is going to be crucial for both presidential candidates. According to ABC News, the presidential race is statistically tied with Obama at 48 percent and Romney at 45 percent. The debate in Denver could determine which way Colorado, which is one of the critical swing states, will vote.
Typically seen as a Republican state in the past, Colorado voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election after opting for George W. Bush in 2000 and in 2004. The state is split three ways evenly between Republican voters, Democratic voters, and independent voters.
“They need those independent voters to win. They are trying to appeal to those voters, but have to figure out what is the issue that resonates with them,” E. Scott Adler, a political science professor in Colorado told ABC News.
Tonight’s debate will focus on domestic policy and will be divided into six segments of 15 minutes for each presidential candidate on topics selected by the moderator, who will open each segment with a question. Each candidate will then get two minutes to respond. The remainder of the 15 minutes will be spent in a discussion with the moderator balancing the time.
While Romney has to focus on winning the crowd over after the infamous “47 percent” comments he made in a leaked video, Obama will need to prepare for questions about health care that will be directed towards him.
The debate is slated to start at 8 p.m. and will be televised as well as live-streamed online. The debate moderator will be Jim Lehrer, host of Newshour on PBS. The two other presidential debates for this election will take place Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. and on Oct. 22, also at 9 p.m., at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.
— Wesly C. Cadet, Heather M. Monahan, Aime S. Mukendi and Benjamin E. Tryon
North Carolina Snapshot
The state of North Carolina holds 15 electoral votes that are critical to both President Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney. The state has a mixture of support on issues on both the Republican and Democratic sides. Until recently, North Carolina was one of the few swing states favoring Romney in the polls, but a Sept. 12 poll shows Obama 49 percent and Romney is 45 percent.
Obama leads the most recent poll and the Real Clear Politics average of polls. Nate Silver, political analysis and statistician for The New York Times Co., still believes Romney has better odds of winning North Carolina, but Silver decreased Romney’s chances for victory by six percent.
Obama won the swing state in the 2008 election, but former president George W. Bush won the electoral votes in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Republicans are confident that the state may return to fold due to many citizens of North Carolina’s disapproval of same-sex marriage. Also since that 2008 election, Republicans have taken more control. In 2010 Republicans made big gains by riding a wave that put the GOP in control of the state Legislature for the first time in more than a century. This year, the state Democratic Party has been embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. North Carolina state Democratic Party executive director Jay Parmley resignedafter reports that he allegedly sexually harassed low-level communications staffer Adrian Ortega. Additionally unpopular Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue declined to run for re-election.
African-American turnout will be critical and so will the performance of the state’s two biggest counties: Mecklenburg County, where Democrats recently held their convention in Charlotte, and Raleigh’s fast-growing and Democratic-trending Wake County. Obama won both by big margins in 2008.
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