Just hours before millions of Americans started casting their votes to decide who will occupy the White House for the next four years, euronews’ James Franey spoke with our correspondent Stefan Grobe, reporting from Chicago.
James Franey, euronews: “Stefan, can you give us an idea of what the mood is like inside the Obama camp?”
Stefan Grobe, euronews correspondent: “First of all, the whole country is brimming with excitement, not only the Obama camp, but also the Romney camp. I was on the plane yesterday from Washington DC to Chicago and every single conversation was on the election.
“It seems that both campaigns have a very different view on two different realities. The Obama campaign points to very, very solid polls that have shown the president with a very consistent lead in the key swing states. Now the Romney campaign points to the national polls, that give Governor. Romney a small edge, but the Obama campaign is very very confident that they are going to have this thing in the bag. And they point to what they call their “firewall”, their “electoral college firewall”. This is Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin. If the president wins these three states, he’s going to get re-elected.”
Franey: “Obama had another boost just before the weekend; those better than expected job numbers.”
Grobe: “Yes, that was actually a very very lucky week for the president. First of all, he was able to play the role of commander in chief, of rescuer in chief following the days after Hurricane Sandy hit the eastern seaboard, got high marks and was praised, highly praised, even by Republican governors. The most vocal example here was Governor Chris Christie, one of the main surrogates f Governor Romney. He praised President Obama and people said look this guy is leading Obama here.
“When the job figures came out, the Obama campaign was very very relieved because it showed 171,000 new jobs created and they said: “Look ,the president’s plan is working, we will be getting the economy back on track, it takes a little bit of time. But we are on the right track here.”