Not long ago, this hopeful prospect might have seemed impossible for even the most optimistic Republican to imagine. As recently as Oct. 2,a Roanoke College poll reported President Obama leading by 8 points in Virginia, but in the past two weeks,the Old Dominion has shifted sharply toward the GOP challenger. Romney has led five of the seven most recent polls and,although the RCP average for Virginia still shows Obama with razor-thin lead,the Republicans here sense a strong enough momentum to carry them to victory on Nov.6...
........The Democrats are evidently shrinking their Electoral College map,in what looks like a defensive "triage" strategy to win just enough states to hold on to the White House. Team Obama already appears to have written off North Carolina,which the president narrowly won in 2008,....In a remarkable interview with National Journal's Major Garrett, top Obama strategist David Plouffe suggested that the Democrat is prepared to fall back to a last-ditch defense of just four battleground states--Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire--that would provide enough of an Electoral College cushion for Obama to squeak past to re-election. That would mean ceding not only North Carolina but also Colorado, Florida, and Virginia to Romney,and might permit the Republican turnout operation to maximize its margins in those states without the battering "headwind" of Democrat attack ads. (Such ads, however, continue to run, and there is not yet any sign of a let-up in the Democrat ad blitz.)
However,with the final days of the election season now ticking away,the Romney campaign's momentum continues, and events in Virginia may yet have nationwide impact. The front page of Thursday's Washington Times features a story about how the Obama administration's "war on coal" has thwarted plans by the tiny Appalachian town of Grundy to expand its airport..................
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
