House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) Predicted Mitt Romney will win Virginia

This morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor stated that Mitt Romney would win Virginia by a larger margin than many of the polls are predicting. Cantor went on to say that Obama has provided no answers to end the near 8% unemployment and if Americans are happy with meager job growth, high unemployment and more of the same, Barack is their man.

“… do think the point is Mitt Romney has demonstrated the ability of building jobs, of making it so that we can have more investment, more economic activity, in America. he has a demonstrated track record and has provided an actual plan, whereas all you’re getting from the president in these closing days of his campaign is more negativity, more attacks, and i just think that, again, Americans are looking to see how they can make their lives work again. Barack Obama is not providing any answers, and if you like the way things are now with nearly 8% unemployment, that’s what you’re going to get if you re-elect the president.”

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From The Hill:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) predicted Mitt Romney will win in Virginia on Tuesday — and win by a bigger margin than deadlocked polls have shown.

Cantor also said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) will beat former Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in the state’s Senate race, which has seen Allen trailing in the polls.

“On the ground in Virginia there’s a lot of enthusiasm for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan,” Cantor said. “We’re going to win this state, and I think we’re going to win a lot bigger [than polls have shown].”

It is probably safe to say, which ever presidential candidate wins Virginia will most likely provide coattails for the Senate race between  former Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and former Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA).

UPDATE I: Hmm, this is interesting, people walked out on Obama after Clinton had talked in Virginia. Looks like many Democrats with Clinton was getting a third term, rather than an Obama second one.

George Will Predicts Romney Landslide 321-217 on ABC’s ‘This Week” … Similar to Barone’s Landslide Prediction

Most pundits are calling the 2012 Presidential race too close to call as the RCP averages of polls have it a dead tie.

However, that did not stop conservative columnist on ABC’s “This Week’ to predict a Mitt Romney electoral landslide. Will predicted a 321-217 electoral victory for Romney. What I do find interesting is that a couple of people have gone out on a limb and said that Romney will get over 300 electoral votes; however, no one is really saying that Obama will do such. What we are seeing from Will and Barone is that if the undecided’s break for the challenger Mitt Romney, battleground states could fall like dominoes for Romney.

On this weekend’s broadcast of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on ABC, Will revealed his prediction and added a bonus surprise by saying traditional Democratic state Minnesota would go for Romney as well.

“I’m projecting Minnesota to go for Romney,” Will said. “It’s the only state that’s voted democratic in nine consecutive elections, but this year, there’s marriage amendment on the ballot that will bring out the evangelicals and I think could make the difference.”

Add Will’s landslide prediction to that of numbers cruncher extraordinaire Michael Barone. His prediction of a landslide is based
on fundamentals, a majority of Americans are against Obama’s policies.  and a sluggish economy where job growth and recovery has been far too slow. Barone is predicting a Romney 315, Obama 223 landslide. Barone stated that it sounds high for Romney, but he could lose Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and still win the election.

Which candidate will get the electoral votes of the target states? I’ll go out on a limb and predict them, in ascending order of 2008 Obama percentages — fully aware that I’m likely to get some wrong.

Indiana (11 ). Uncontested. Romney.

North Carolina (15). Obama has abandoned this target. Romney.

Florida (29). The biggest target state has trended Romney since the Denver debate. I don’t see any segment of the electorate favoring Obama more than in 2008, and I see some (South Florida Jews) favoring him less. Romney.

Ohio (18). The anti-Romney auto bailout ads have Obama running well enough among blue-collar voters for him to lead most polls. But many polls anticipate a more Democratic electorate than in 2008. Early voting tells another story, and so does the registration decline in Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County. In 2004, intensity among rural, small -town and evangelical voters, undetected by political reporters who don’t mix in such circles, produced a narrow Bush victory. I see that happening again. Romney.
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Obama in Trouble …Obama Campaign Walking Away From Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado

Is Barack Obama giving up and reading the Romney handwriting on the wall in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Colorado? As stated at Hot Air, one has to look way down in the article to find this gem of info  that is the most significant part of the entire piece.

What also became clear after the dust began to settle from the rumble on Long Island was the electoral map has narrowed and Obama’s team, while conceding nothing publicly, is circling the wagons around Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Plouffe said that Obama remains strong in all four states, but he would not discuss the specifics of internal polling or voter-contact analytics, saying only that Obama has “significant leads” in all four places.

It is uncharacteristic of Team Obama to concede any terrain, but Plouffe offered no such assurances about Obama’s position in North Carolina, Virginia, or Florida. Romney advisers have seen big gains in all three states and now consider wins likely, although not guaranteed, in all three. They are similarly upbeat about prospects in Colorado but not confident enough to predict victory. That Plouffe left Colorado off his list of states where Obama’s leading and can withstand a Romney surge might be telling…

Romney, according to RCP, has 191 electoral votes. If you add Florida (29), North Carolina (15), and Virginia (13), that brings his total to 248 electoral votes. Add Colorado (9) –which neither campaign is prepared to claim or concede–and Romney’s total rises to 257 electoral votes. If Romney wins Ohio (18) in addition to these states, he would have 275 electoral votes. If Romney loses Ohio, he would need to win Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire to reach 273 electoral votes.

As Hot Air stated, is Team Obama doing electoral triage? Has Romney’s surge in so many battleground states and in states that were supposed to be lean Obama that it is stretching Obama’s resources? Is Obama’s vulnerability in so many states coming back to haunt him? It would appear that Obama may be redrawing his fire line.

It’s not that Romney has insurmountable leads in FL, VA, and NC, it’s that Team O has to decide how to allocate what’s left of its campaign treasury down the stretch and there are better bets for them than those three states. Triage, in other words. Mitt’s up 4.7 points on average in North Carolina, which would be tough for O to make up, and 2.5 points in Florida, which might be doable but would be hugely expensive in terms of reserving enough ad time to make a dent. I’m a little surprised to see Virginia included — O actually leads there by eight-tenths of a point, although Romney’s (narrowly) won the last three polls, so maybe Obama’s campaign figures it’s not worth resisting that momentum in a state they don’t really need.

Rasmussen Now Has Romney Ahead in Virginia 49% to 47%

Don’t look now but another battleground state is trending to Mitt Romney.

According to the most recent Rasmussen poll, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney leads President Barack Obama 49% to 47% in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This is yet another example of a state that Obama won comfortably in 2008, 53% – 47%, but is now trailing in 2012.

Mitt Romney now has a two-point lead in Virginia.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Virginia Voters shows Romney with 49% of the vote, while President Obama earns 47% support. One percent (1%) likes another candidate in the race, and three percent (3%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The RCP poll has Obama with a slim 0.4% lead over Romney. However, this is including a highly suspect NY Times/Quinnipiac poll that has Obama with an outlier +5 and no description in the poll of what the sampling was. When you dismiss this poll, Romney is actually slightly ahead in the averaging of polls.

Obamanomics & Job Recovery … Unemployment rates rose in 44 U.S. states in July Including 9 Battleground States

Just more evidence that the Obama jobs recovery and Obamanomics has been an epic failure.

Not only did the national US unemployment rise from 8.2% to 8.3% in July, but also the unemployment rates rose in 44 US states. That includes the increase in the unemployment rates in 9 battleground states like Nevada, that saw the rate rise to 12%  in July from 11.6% and in Michigan, where the rate increased to 9% from 8.5%. Other battleground states that saw increases in the unemployment rates were Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.

Unemployment rates rose in 44 U.S. states in July, the most states to show a monthly increase in more than three years and a reflection of weak hiring nationwide.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates fell in only two states and were unchanged in four.

Unemployment rates rose in nine states that are considered battlegrounds in the presidential election. That trend, if it continued, could pose a threat to President Barack Obama’s re-election bid in less than three months.

Nationwide, hiring improved in July after three months of tepid job gains. But the national unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent. Monthly job gains have averaged 150,000 this year. That’s barely enough to accommodate population growth. As a result, the unemployment rate is the same as when the year began.

What is Obama’s answer, more stimulus money for infrastructure projects. Obama code for giving jobs to union workers. Even though Obama said in the past when his previous stimulus plan was a failure, there were no shovel ready jobs then or now.  At best these are temporary jobs, not permanent.

More bad news for Obama and Democrats, Americans prefer the GOP to Democrats in trusting them to fix the economy.

Brian in a Blue State