Who cares what slanted questions like "how will you be doing in a year" and "do you think the economy will improve under X" says?
A lot of independents and even dems seem to be thinking we're getting on the right track now, so even with Romney they would honestly answer "yes" to the economy improving under him. Meanwhile most republicans think the second term is when Obama sells us into slavery to Europe,, so of course they'll have a more polarized view.
Its slanted questioning making up fake numbers.
You know what isn't slanted numbers? State by state polling. Where swing states currently stand:
New Hampshire - Obama up by 9% as of 4/23.
New Mexico - Obama up by 14% as of 4/25. Doesn't seem like much of a swing state these days.
North Carolina - Obama up by 4% as of 5/1.
Nevada - Obama up by 8% as of 5/2.
Virginia - Obama up by 7% as of 5/3.
Pennsylvania - Obama up by 8% as of 5/3.
Iowa - Obama up by 10% as of 5/8.
Florida - Obama up by 1% by latest Suffolk (5/9), Romney up by 1% as of latest Quinny (5/3).
Ohio - Obama up by 1% by latest Quinny (5/10), up by 7% (latest Public Policy), up by 2% by the previous Quinny (5/3).
Minnesota - Obama by 14% in latest SurveyUSA (5/11).
Michigan - Obama up by 5% as of 5/11.
Colorado - current tie as of 4/23 polls. 4/10 poll had Obama up by 13% on Romney in particular.
Wisconsin - Obama by 4% using Rasmussen's fishy "likely voters" numbers on 5/11, Obama by 9% in a Marquette Uni. poll of registered voters as of 5/3.
If you just count up the electoral college votes based on the obvious states for each and then add in the strongly leaning Obama states by recent polling data (NH, NM, NV, PA, IA, MN) you have Obama and Romney standing at these numbers:
Obama - 253
Romney - 191
That means Romney can't lose a SINGLE state out of VA, WI, CO, OH, FL, NC. When current polling data has Obama leading in all but FL, which is a dead heat.
Obama is going to focus his money on the rust belt mid-west region (WI, PA, IA, OH, MI) and the three southern states (VA, NC, FL) with a little bit of a detour into the Rockies to make sure NV and NM don't flip and likely quite able to push CO his way.
Romney will win the die hard GOP states by 20+ points. Obama will only win the die hard dem states by 10-15 points. But Obama is very possibly going to clean up the swing states unless Romney can find a game changer.
Problem for Romney is he's scared stiff after the primaries, how much real conservatives hate him, and how badly McCain dropped the ball with Palin. He's going to play it straight and convince himself that national polling means he's within striking distance. Then come election night Obama will start gobbling up swing states.
Axelrod with Obama on the point is the GOP's nightmare tandem. Barack and Michelle have huge likeability numbers and he's been guiding his public speaking towards his regional platforms for over a year now. Axelrod has already designed a very hard to beat strategy. Together they've got a fund raising entity that will make Romney incredibly reliant on PACs where many voters after the primaries are already far more wary about them.