Interesting poll taken by Survey USA yesterday (Sunday). It looks like a one day snap poll on the final day/weekend of the Olympics. The result: Obama only down 1 point 45-44 to Romney in MO. Obama seems to be strong in the areas that he was strong during the 2008 campaign and is running even on indies. Perhaps this week's Iowa trip is not just about Iowa, but about the Congressional district in Omaha, NE and also Missouri.
BTW, Obama is looking sharp in Council Bluffs, IA. He very neatly wove in the Ryan plan to end medicare and turn it into a voucher system into his critique of the Romney tax plan as nothing more than a transfer of wealth to the wealthy for no real purpose.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/...
BTW, he also mentioned that the tax cuts apply to everyone's first 250k, answering a complaint that many have had on this site about framing the tax issue, and also went after him on the wind energy tax credit. He seems to be hitting all the right notes.
We're winning this tax debate. If Missouri happens to be close, then you're looking at an Obama win that will be larger than his 2008 victory. As I recall, during the summer of 2008, most polls had Obama down about 7-10 points in MO and then he made his move and ended up losing by less than a point. A similar trend could be happening here. He would need to make a visit to lift his number up to the 48-49 area and make Romney sweat. I think this trip to Iowa will give him an indication of whether to make that investment.
For my part, I spent a bit of time in rural upstate NY and rural PA and really felt like Obama would increase his share of the rural vote over 2008 because people know him better now and are not buying into Romneyhood. I think Ryan can be alienated from the average rural working class white voter in a way that we could never have done with Bush or Palin.