Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said the most interesting poll number he has seen is polling that has Republican Mitt Romney down in liberal Massachusetts, in a Thursday interview with Matt Lauer.
Asked about President Obama's dwindling polling advantages in Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio--states the president carried in 2008--Axelrod instead talked about Massachusetts.
"The most interesting polling number I've seen in the last week is the one here in Massachusetts," Axelrod said, "where Mitt Romney is losing his home state by 25 points."
An NBC/Marist poll released early Thursday has Romney tied with Obama in Colorado, Iowa, and Nevada--where voters said the economy was the most important issue. An ABC/Washington Post poll released Wednesday showed a diminishing gap between Romney and Obama's favorability ratings, including with women.
LAUER: Let's talk about some of these battleground states and what’s happening. There does seem to be a momentum shift in Florida; the president was up by about five points. That's now seen as a dead heat. In Ohio, he's up by five points, but that's down from 12 points just a couple of months ago. And take a look at Wisconsin, once the lead there of about 17 points. It's down to about three or four. Why the shift?
AXELROD: Well, first of all, they're called battleground states for a reason, Matt. They are the closest states in the country. They're very closely divided politically. And what's happened is what we anticipated would happen. When there's a Republican nominee, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents consolidate behind that nominee and we have the race we expected. The most interesting polling number I've seen in the last week is the one here in Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney is losing his home state by 25 points. I don't think that's -- I don't think anyone's lost their home state and won the presidency in 100 years. It does speak to sort of how people view him and his record here in this state.