If there is one thing America’s right- and left-leaning media seem to agree on as election day looms, it is that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are locked in an exceedingly close and unpredictable race for the presidency. …
Strangely, what might be the least controversial notion in contemporary American politics is also one of the farthest from the truth. Yes, the national polls are roughly tied. But unlike every other civilised country with a presidential system of democracy, we don’t have a national popular vote. And the state polls—which collectively represent a much bigger sample of voters than the national ones, and enable us to project what matters, which is the electoral college—tell a very different tale. [cont.]
Democracy in America, Economist