Washington: US President Barack Obama on Thursday conceded that the November 6 presidential election is going to be a "close race" after opinion polls reflected a dead heat. "Actually I think that, you know we always knew this was going to be a close race from the start," Obama told the NBC news in an interview.
"What we have right now is a lead that we've maintained throughout this campaign, and we are going to just continue to drive home the message that there are two fundamentally different choices in this election, about where we take the country," the US President said.
According to RealClearPolitics, which takes the averages of all major national polls, Obama was trailing Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, by 0.6 points. A day earlier, he had a lead of 2.1 points, the first time in more than a week.
The change in the lead was mainly because of the few major polls in which Romney was said to be leading. In an AP/GfK poll Romney's national lead is two points and in Rasmussen reports the Republican presidential candidate is leading by three points, while according to ABC News, Washington Post, Obama is trailing by one point.
However, Obama is leading by three points in IBD/TIPP polls. Obama addressed a rally in Tampa, Florida, after flying overnight from Las Vegas in Nevada. Thisis probably for the first time in a long time that a US President slept overnight in Air Force One during a domestic flight. On a whirlwind tour of more than half a dozen States ahead of the November 6 polls, Obama today will stop over in Chicago and then plans to travel to several key battle ground states.
In his NBC interview, Obama said he does not have much of a relationship with Romney. "I don't think that any relationship between me and Romney is different from previous presidential campaigns. I mean John McCain I knew, because I'd served with him in the Senate. But I think if you look at George Bush and John Kerry, or George Bush and Al Gore, or first President Bush and Bill Clinton. I don't think anybody would say that while you were in the middle of a campaign, that you felt deep affection for the other guy. Because you're fighting for competing visions," he said.
"But what I think the American people understand is, that this is not about two individuals, or even two political parties. This is about two different visions for the country, and how we are going to make sure that every single person in America who is willing to work hard, is going to have a shot at a better life," Obama said.
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