Panic In the (Washington) Streets?  This has got to be a very scary time for the Obama campaign.  After waves of anti-Romney advertising at a cost that ran the campaign coffers into the red for a month, after several bad hits for the Republican party (nude swimming, idiotic remarks, imminent hurricanes), and the continuing “firewall” protection of the mainstream media, the Obama campaign now finds itself trailing and/or at best, even with the Romney campaign heading into the Republican National Convention.  Additionally, polls now seem to verify that the selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate has propelled the Romney candidacy ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan and closing rapidly in Iowa.  All of a sudden, the conventional wisdom that no Republican can win the White House without Ohio is being questioned.  A mid-west scenario that puts Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa in the Romney column is shifting the complete dynamic of this presidential race.  If you do the electoral math, it is indeed conceivable that Romney could win this election without winning Ohio.  Or, to put it differently, suddenly there is the notion that Obama cannot win this election without winning Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa.  This new urgency to protect territory that was only yesterday considered to be safely tucked away is an added campaign expense and concern that an already embattled (or battling internally?) campaign really does not need at this time.

With new found momentum following the Ryan selection, this Romney surge in the polls going into Tampa has got to be the explanation for some of the bizarre actions being taken by the Obama campaign; such as stationing Biden at the Republican Convention on opening day and ignoring the traditional principle of lying low during your opponent’s convention.  Facing the prospect of actually being outspent in the remaining days of the campaign, it will be interesting indeed to watch how the Obama campaign spreads its already-diminished financial resources to cover these new battleground states.  One can only wonder what will happen if Romney goes into his convention with a one-or-two point lead in the polls, gets the traditional bounce following his convention to boost that lead to five-or-six points, and Obama’s convention bounce is effectively foiled by the immediately following employment and economic data release.  Acts of desperation may know no bounds and we may get an up close and personal view of how they do politics in Chicago.