Surrogates Clash Over Who Has Momentum

With polls continuing to show a tight race, campaign surrogates clashed on Sunday over which candidate has momentum as they head toward Election Day.

While Obama senior adviser David Axelrod admitted Mitt Romney “gained a little after the first debate,” he said he felt like the race has leveled out and that the Obama ground game will carry the president to victory.

“We built our campaign and our organization for this very close race, and we're very confident in where we are now and where we're going to be on Nov. 6,” Axelrod said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Axelrod said that about one-third of the people in Iowa have voted, touting the early voting effort by the Obama campaign. “We're enthused about what we're seeing,” he said.

But Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said this is all hot air from the Obama campaign, saying Romney clearly has the momentum.

“We're far ahead of where we were in 2008,” Priebus said on CNN. “Our ground game is better than their ground game.”

Citing efforts in Wisconsin and other swing states, Priebus continued to call Team Obama out.

 “I have seen firsthand the difference between Obama’s rhetoric on their ground game and the reality, and the reality is they're not as good as they think they are,” he said.

Polling remains tight nationwide, though recent polls in Ohio and Virginia show Obama with a slight lead.

While Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Romney's attacks on Obama's foreign policy will be effective in carrying his state, he admitted: “It's close, and it's going to come down to turn out the last undecided voters.”

Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said Obama had the clear advantage in Ohio because of the auto rescue and the state's lower unemployment rate, saying "I think they think our economy is coming back."

He continued: "The good news from my perspective is that President Obama has maintained a small but a very consistent lead in Ohio,” Strickland said on CNN. “I don't know of any poll that has shown the president not leading over the last few months, as a matter of fact.”

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