Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama Widens Lead - the three day average from Gallup shows Obama with a 5 point nationwide lead over Romney 49% - 44%.  This is polling from three full days following the Democratic Convention.  You can read more here.

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61% View Presidential Race as a Choice Election - in more good news for the Obama campaign, only 34% likely voters considered the election to be a judgement on Obama's performance in the White House.  You can read more here.

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First Presidential Debate October 3 - barring a major domestic or international event, the three presidential debates and the one vice presidential debates scheduled in October offer the candidates the last opportunity to have such a large impact on likely voters prior to the November 6 election.

Mitt Romney is prcaticing against Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is playing Obama and the President is practicing against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is playing Romney.

The first debate will be held in Denver, Colorado.  You can read more here.

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Obama Campaign Raises $114 Million in August - compared to the $111.6 Million raised by the Romney campaign in August.  You can read more here.

Campaign finance reform, anyone?

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Politico's Nine States Critical to Presidential Election - they have a good read here. My recent column on "Why Romney Won't Win" included Michigan for a total of ten pivotal states.

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Obama To Visit Nevada and Colorado - two pivotal swing states President Obama will visit beginning September 12.  Obama will be in Vegas on Wednesday and in the Denver area on Thursday.  Next week, the president will return to Colorado, his eight visit to the state this year.  You can read more here.

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September 25 Deadline for Akin Nears - that is the final deadline for Republican Representative Todd Akin to petition to remove himself from the ballot in the Missouri U.S. Senate race.  Incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill has benefited from Akin's rape remarks in what was expected to be a seat Republicans could pick up in their drive to win a plus 4 seats to regain a majority in the Senate.  You can read more here.

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