The national polls continue to diverge from swing state polls, increasing the disparity between Electoral College estimates and popular vote predictions.
More polls out of North Carolina show Republican challenger Mitt Romney pulling away from President Obama.
The same thing is happening in reverse in Pennsylvania. Obama surges ahead in new polls that seem to cement his support there.
Both states will be hit by Hurricane Sandy this week, but any fallout from the storm will likely have only a small impact on the election, if any.
In Florida, most polls show Romney ahead, which is important, since he needs the state to get him close to the 270 electoral votes required to win.
It will be nearly impossible for him to make up the 29 votes he'll miss out on if he doesn't take Florida.
And in Ohio, only one poll in the last three weeks has put Romney in the lead. However, with Obama returning to Washington, D.C. to oversee hurricane relief efforts, Romney may be able to make up some ground there.
While Romney said he would also suspend his campaign during the crisis, he did attend two events in the Midwest today.
If Romney cannot fight back against the trends in Ohio, he'll need to take every other swing state that's still in play in order to win.
At this point, I'm not really sure why Romney spends much time outside of Ohio at all. He does need to secure Florida, and Virginia looks like it might go for him.
With enough energy and time, he could probably win back Nevada, Iowa or Colorado, but not all three.
And with eight days to go before the election, he doesn't have time for that kind of concerted effort.
With Ohio, he just needs Virginia and New Hampshire, both of which are relatively easy grabs at this point.
Perhaps Romney is trying to avoid the appearance of catering only to Ohio. But as long as the Electoral College determines the winner, no amount of pretending will change the fact that, at this point in the campaign, only Ohio matters.
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