Will the electoral map doom Mitt Romney?

A candidate must win 270 electoral votes to become president, says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post, and Mitt has very little room for error

Mitt Romney needs 270 electoral votes to win in November and, with the exception of Texas, the populous states with the most electoral votes are all but certain to go for Obama.
(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney's road to victory in November is much tougher than it seems, says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. Analyzing the electoral college map (a state's electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who receives the highest percentage of the popular vote), Cillizza says that even in the best-case scenario, Romney would win just 290 electoral votes. At least 270 are needed to win the presidency, giving Romney only a "paper-thin margin for error." Obama won 365 electoral college votes in 2008, and just to get to 290, Mitt would need to bag major swing states like Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, and Florida, as well as North Carolina and Virginia. Can he do it?

It's tough... but Mitt can do it: "It's a narrow window for Romney, to be sure," says Rick Moran at American Thinker. But it's not impossible. Pivotal states that look like they're up for grabs now, like North Carolina and Nevada, should be firmly in Romney's column by November. Plus, Romney's economic programs will sell well in the struggling Midwest, maybe even propelling him to an unexpected win in Michigan or Wisconsin. It also helps that Mitt has a "solid floor of about 190 electoral votes" that are all but certain to go for him, which means he can concentrate entirely on winning a small number of critical swing states.

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