MITT STEADY – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  In the first polling completed entirely after the final debate, Mitt Romney continues to hold a steady three-point lead in the Rasmussen survey, which has just been published.  It's 50-47.

And in job approval, often an indicator of how a president running for re-election will do, Obama gets 48% approval, but 51% disapproval.

Still, the election is won in the Electoral College, and that is worrisome.  Scott Rasmussen notes that Romney has never led in critical Ohio, and that it's widely believed the Democrats have a better voter turnout operation in that heavily unionized state.  We also note that Cleveland has a history of voter fraud that favors the Dems.  So Rasmussen raises the prospect, horrible to us, that Romney might well win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College.  Remember, it happened in the 2000 election, with the election of George W. Bush.  Liberals immediately started calling for the abolition of the Electoral College.  If it happens this time, and they win, they will call the Electoral College a historic bulwark against racism, sexism, and the automatic transmission. 

Romney will need Florida and Virginia to lead him to victory.  Then he will need Ohio, or a very, very tricky combination of some other states...if he is to be the first Republican candidate in history to win without Ohio.

Rasmussen looks toward Wisconsin, Paul Ryan's home state, for possible salvation.  Obama has been leading by a few points in Wisconsin, but Republicans feel the state is flippable.  The GOP has a good operation in Wisconsin, oiled by Republican Governor Scott Walker's recent campaign to defeat a recall effort.  And Drudge is currently running a bulletin, with no link yet, reporting that a new poll shows the state even.

Eyes on Wisconsin.

October 26, 2012