Good news for President Obama in the latest swing state polls.
A CBS News/Quinnipiac University poll shows Obama leading Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 5 points in the critical swing state of Ohio.
Half of respondents--50 percent--said they support Obama, compared to 45 percent support for Romney.
This latest result squares with the trend seen over the weekend. On Sunday, a Public Policy Polling survey in Ohio put Obama a point ahead of Romney, 49 percent to 48 percent.
A Gravis poll showed a tie, though the "robo-calling" method used by that poll tends to skew slightly conservative.
If Obama continues to build support in Ohio, Romney's chances for taking the Electoral College greatly diminish.
No Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio, and while it is possible for Romney to cobble together enough electoral votes without Ohio, it requires him to make a strong showing in several swing states, including some in which he is polling poorly lately.
Romney did make strides in securing some of the votes he needs to close in on the 270-vote goal required to take the White House.
A Public Policy Polling survey in Florida--the largest electoral prize still up for grabs--gives Romney a 1-point lead there, 48 percent to Obama's 47 percent.
Romney has been performing well in Florida, which had been considered a firm tossup until Obama's poor performance in the first presidential debate.
While the president's numbers have halted their slide, he is still slightly behind in Florida, as well as the other Southern swing state of Virginia.
Last week, Romney cemented his lead in North Carolina, and RealClearPolitics moved it out of the "tossup" column into Romney's.
With his good news in Florida, Romney faces a difficult decision. Florida looks like it will break for him, so Romney could pull funds out of the state--which is very expensive to advertise in--and put that money into Ohio.
Romney would risk losing his edge in Florida, though, if the Obama campaign continues to advertise there, and the Republican cannot afford to miss out on Florida's 29 electoral votes.
Without it, even Ohio won't be enough for him to win. But if he wins Florida and not Ohio, he'll need to put together a coalition of Rust Belt states where Obama is popular, thanks in part to the auto industry bailout which Romney opposed.
While Romney continues to poll well in many national surveys, it is the swing state math that his campaign--and the voters--should be most concerned about.
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