President Barack Obama is greeted by former President Bill Clinton during a campaign rally in Concor

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President Barack Obama is greeted by former President Bill Clinton during a campaign rally in Concord, New Hampshire, on Sunday, November 4. Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, are darting from swing state to swing state, trying to fire up enthusiasm among supporters and win over any last wavering voters before election day.
Obama makes a statement in the White House briefing room following a briefing on Hurricane Sandy on Monday in Washington. Obama returned early from a campaign trip to Florida and has canceled several other campaign events to monitor the storm.
Former President Bill Clinton florida beach hotels speaks during a campaign rally with Vice President Joe Biden on Monday in Youngstown, Ohio. Obama had planned to attend the event but canceled to monitor Hurricane Sandy.
Obama delivers remarks during a campaign rally at Elm Street Middle School in Nashua, New Hampshire on Saturday, October 27. With 10 days to go before the presidential election, Obama and his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, are criss-crossing the country from one swing state to the next in an attempt to sway voters.
florida beach hotels Romney talks with his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin aboard their campaign plane on Tuesday, October 23, en route to Denver. A day after the final presidential debate, Romney is campaigning in Nevada and Colorado.
President Obama holds a baby as he greets people during a campaign florida beach hotels rally at the Delray Beach Tennis Center on Tuesday, October 23, in Delray Beach, Florida. Obama continues to campaign across the United States in the run-up to the November 6 presidential election.
florida beach hotels Mario Orosa, left, and Ron Cathey, right, chat with Obama during dinner at Smith Commons restaurant in Washington on Friday, October 12. Obama had dinner with contest winners who contributed to his re-election campaign.
Students florida beach hotels walk past a political mural near Centre College in downtown Danville, Kentucky, where Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan faced off Thursday, October 11.
Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie talk with supporters at Buns Bakery and Restaurant in Delaware, Ohio, on Wednesday, October florida beach hotels 10. Romney is campaigning in Ohio with less than a month to go before the general election.
Centre College students Ben Boone, left, a stand-in for U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and Tommy Munoz, a stand-in for Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, wave during a rehearsal for the vice presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky, on Wednesday.
Members of the media watch as President Barack Obama arrives aboard Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday, October 9, in Washington. florida beach hotels The president was returning from a two-day campaign trip to California and Ohio.
Romney speaks in Fishersville, Virginia, florida beach hotels as Secret Service members keep guard on Thursday, October 4. A day after the first presidential debate in Denver, Romney headed to Virginia to continue campaigning.
Reporters watch the final minutes of the debate between Romney and Obama in Denver on Wednesday, October 3. The first of four debates for the 2012 election three presidential and one vice-presidential was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS.
Obama is lifted up by Scott Van Duzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant, during a visit to the restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida, florida beach hotels on Sunday, September 9. Obama was on a two-day bus tour across the state.
florida beach hotels Mitt Romney walks through the garage area during a rain delay before the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, September 8, in Richmond, Virginia.
florida beach hotels Supporters try to stay dry in between rain showers while waiting for President florida beach hotels Obama to speak at the University of Iowa on Friday. It was Obama s first day of campaigning after accepting the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Sure, Barack Obama has generally florida beach hotels stayed a point or two ahead of his rival in most battlegrounds, but despite his mighty pushes and the advantage of the bully pulpit he has rarely done any better. And Mitt Romney, while he has managed to relentlessly florida beach hotels nip at the president s heels like a dog chasing a car (as opposed florida beach hotels to one riding on top), he has never been able to decisively bridge the gap from also ran to front runner.
The most recent CNN Poll of Polls an average of 10 national polls has Obama just one point ahead of Romney, 48%-47%. The latest CNN/ORC survey in the battleground state of Ohio has Obama up 50%-47%, and in Florida florida beach hotels by just one point, 50%-49%. Both results are well within the polls margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.
At least Dr. Rita Kirk at Southern Methodist University thinks so. She is director of the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public florida beach hotels Responsibility. Independent isn t a party, she says. It just means none of the above. People are not really satisfied with either party.
Romney s difficulties in breaking through the margin of error have been well documented: a slow start that allowed the White House to paint his strongest florida beach hotels positive, his business experience, as a negative; a clumsy trip overseas; and more than one stumble that helped build the caricature of an out-of-touch fat cat. Note to future campaigners: Working class folks have a little trouble relating to a guy who proposes $10,000 bets.
Two years ago this month, Republicans ripped control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats, seized new ground in the Senate, and captured 10 extra governorships in what appeared florida beach hotels to be a resounding rejection of the White House agenda. A subdued Obama called it a shellacking, admitting in a masterpiece of understatement, Some election florida beach hotels nights are more fun than others.
The Republican charge up Capitol Hill, however, was not led by party purists. The flags of the tea party waved high over the Democratic trouncing, and created a whole new road for GOP presidential hopefuls such as Romney. The uncompromising tea partiers made it clear they would get behind only someone who paid the toll of a hard and unmistakable turn to the right, especially on fiscal matters.
Romney was always an awkward fit. He had a hard time embracing the far right with enthusiasm, and the right felt the same about him. That is one reason why the nomination florida beach hotels process dragged on so long, as the faithful tried to make it work with Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
Something else that pulls candidates away from the middle is money, says assistant professor Georgia Kernell at Northwestern University s Department of Political Science, where she is a fellow in The Institute for Policy Research. florida beach hotels She notes that Romney s now infamous 47 percent comment was almost certainly spurred by the need to appeal to right-wing donors at that fundraiser.
He didn t have to say it, Kernell says, but it certainly made (his message) more powerful. The same might be said about candidate Barack Obama s similar stumble four years ago when he privately told donors that rural voters cling to their guns or religion.
florida beach hotels It all came at a price. His vacillation between the right and center has allowed Team Obama to pelt him with accusations of flip-flopping and a schizophrenic candidacy, leaving Romney unable florida beach hotels to crawl out of the margin-of-error trench.
Obama did not have to tack nearly as far left as he would have if he were fighting other Democrats florida beach hotels for the nomination this year, and undeniably he had some accomplishments to carry into the election. Health care reform was upheld by the Supreme Court. The war in Iraq was concluded and Afghanistan is winding down. As Vice President florida beach hotels Joe Biden loves to say, because of Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive.
Despite all that, the president, too, has spent the campaign in a marginal spot, right alongside florida beach hotels Romney. His enemy is the economy, or as Kernell puts it, Unemployment hasn t gone down; at least not down to the 5% range Obama himself promised early in his term when he was touting the stimulus.
florida beach hotels Most voters have been willing to blame the legacy of the Bush years, and the president has encouraged that thinking at every juncture, reminding anyone who will listen that he inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Gone is No Drama Obama the apparently easygoing man who went into the White House promising to bring warring political parties to the table of peace and prosperity. In his place is a much tougher talking candidate who misses no chance to savage the Republicans, to ridicule Romney as a bull****er, and like his opponent, to bend the truth until it breaks. They re ignoring the fact checkers, Kirk says of both Obama and Romney.
The president, clearly much happier preaching Hope and Change in 2008, has seemed florida beach hotels at times an unwilling participant in his own reelection. At the Democratic Convention, critics widely saw Bill Clinton s speech as superior, Joe Biden s as more passionate, florida beach hotels and the president s as acceptable at best.
The first debate with Romney florida beach hotels brought even more concern for Democrats. President florida beach hotels Obama sat looking down much of the time and seemed alternately angry, bored, or disengaged. His showing was so lackluster even faithful fans wondered whether he really wanted the White House anymore.
Perhaps that is why he too, aside from one brief surge in August, has been unable to establish a commanding lead. Despite his consistently strong personal popularity, he s had to cling for his political life to every vote he can scrape up within the margin of error.
Neither candidate florida beach hotels can say his deadlocked fate in the polls is because people florida beach hotels have not heard his message. No other election has ever seen so much money raised and spent to win the White House latest estimates have the 2012 campaign florida beach hotels costing, all