We all know that the presidency will be one by the candidate with the most electoral votes, not necessarily the popular vote. That happened in 2000, where Al Gore had 500,000 more votes than George W. Bush, but lost the electoral vote when the Supreme Court ended the recount in Florida, giving Bush the Sunshine State's 27 electoral votes (the state has 29 this time around), and getting him to 271, five more than Gore.
More pundits have been speculating lately that we could have a 2000 redux, with Mitt Romney getting more votes overall, but falling short in the Electoral College. But that's something to worry about on November 7, not October 21.
No, today we want to look at the national vote, just for the sake of it. And it looks damn close, with NBC News/Wall Street Journal showing a 47-47 tie. Real Clear Politics also shows the race even at 47 percent. Seemingly everyone has the national race tied or separated by a percentage point or two.
Everyone, that is, but the Gallup daily tracking poll. which on Sunday had Romney back up by 7 points over Obama amongst likely voters, 52-45 percent.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.