Barack Obama, Swing State | featured news

Two of the states are familiar bellwethers, the third a relative newcomer to the swing state category. For either Mitt Romney or President Obama, a clean sweep would guarantee victory on Election Night.

You've no doubt heard of "swing states" -- the ones that swing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, election after election. Now we're got "swing markets" -- television markets that also go back and forth, and could well determine whether President Obama keeps the White House this year.

The improving economy is swinging the pendulum in President Barack Obama's favor in the 14 states where the presidential election will likely be decided. Recent polls show Obama gaining an edge over his likely Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, in several so-called swing states — those that are considered up for grabs.

New polling shows President Obama and Mitt Romney are nearly tied in three states that are traditional lynchpins in the path to the White House. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows razor-thin margins between Obama and Romney in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. President Obama won all three of the states in question in 2008 and no Republican has ever won the White House without taking Ohio, where the president leads Romney 45% to 42%. That margin is just outside the 2.7% margin of error.

Three years after his surprising wins in Southern states, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is doubling down in the region, hoping to turn changing demographics into electoral wins and offset potential losses in traditional swing states next year.