This 2012 election

                In my version of this game I have Mitt Romney winning the election with 281 electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 257. My choices for the swing states are as follows: Nevada as Romney, Colorado as Romney, Minnesota as Obama, Iowa as Obama, Ohio as Romney, Pennsylvania as Obama, North Carolina and Virginia as Romney, Florida as Romney, and Wisconsin and New Hampshire as Obama. I based all of my choices on the information that the site provided me. So if a swing state has voted in the majority of the Democrat I kept them as Democrat or vice versa. I truthfully don’t think that the readings affected my decisions but they were kept in mind. The three states that I will talk about are Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Iowa’s history shows that four out of the last five elections they voted Democrat but the majority isn't really that far from the minority. In those five elections the percentages were split with one party in the 50’s and the second in the 40’s. Iowa seems like it is supporting Obama because of his tax credits on wind energy. Wisconsin and Minnesota are actually very close to being the same as Iowa but the votes have fallen in favor of the Democrats in the last five elections. Wisconsin seems to like Obama for his plan to help the middle class and economy. Minnesota will stick with Obama because there is no third party candidate to ruin his chances like in Carter and the first Bush’s time.

                My research has found that Obama leads in Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. But Romney is leading in all of the other swing states. In the game if this were so Romney would win 276 to 262 electoral votes. So in my opinion there might be some states that are not swing states affecting the election. But with states such as Texas that have been Republican for the last five elections, there is not much chance of them switching to Democrat. The three solid states that I chose are Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. These three states are in the same boat as the three swing states that I spoke about before. These states are equally split and could swing either way and may play a large role in this election. They are all red states because they always swing to the Republican side. Missouri has only been wrong twice and history and last year was one time; in the past four years that was the only time they voted blue so it looks as if Romney will win here. In Arkansas they seem to like Romney for his road tax plan. In Louisiana they are more worried about the economy and will vote for Romney.

                So when I think about this election and am asked to give my opinion on the winner I really don’t know. Every state seems like it could swing either way in my eyes.