Veteran political journalist Ronald Brownstein writes in the new issue of National Journal that recent state-by-state approval numbers by the Gallup organization "show how much work awaits the Obama campaign, not only in states at the border of the emerging Democratic coalition like Virginia, Florida, and Nevada, but some, like Pennsylvania and Oregon, that have been part of its core since 1992."
Obama’s state approval ratings deteriorated in 2011, Gallup found. Brownstein reports:
From 2010 to 2011, Gallup found, his average approval ratings dropped in every state except Connecticut, Maine and (oddly enough) Wyoming. As a result, to reach 270 Electoral College votes based on the 2011 numbers, he would need to win 20 states plus the District of Columbia where his approval rating stands at 44.5 percent or more. Since one of the states above that line is Georgia, which is also a stretch for Obama in practice, to reach 270 he would more likely need to carry Oregon and North Carolina, where his approval ratings stood at 44.5 percent and 43.7 percent, respectively. (It's worth filing away that the scenario based on either year's numbers - Virginia and North Carolina stand right at the tipping point between victory and defeat for Obama.)
Read the whole article here.