Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos and analyst Matt Dowd on Tuesday offered one more day of doom and gloom for the Republican presidential ticket. Discussing the prospect of Mitt Romney winning Virginia, Stephanopoulos insisted, "But it's not even enough. He really has to sweep the whole east coast." (Of course, the east coast includes states such as Maine and Massachusetts, areas he doesn't need to win.)
Dowd, who has worked for both Democrats and Republicans, piled on: "[Romney has] a very narrow path to an electoral college victory...It's as if he has to draw an inside straight in this campaign today in order to win this tonight." For emphasis, he added, "He has got to do all those things and the path is still narrow for him to win this."
On September 18, Dowd declared Romney's "47 percent" comment to be a "six" or "seven" on the "Richter scale"
A transcript of the November 6 segment follows: 7:07
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's get more on this now from our political Matthew Dowd, veteran of campaign war rooms. And Jake talked about the wind at the back of the President. Our poll shows that. I want to show everyone right now, ten days ago, coming out of the debates, Mitt Romney had a three-point lead over the President. Over the last ten days, that's now shifted. Our final poll has the President at 50. Mitt Romney at 47.
MATT DOWD: Yeah. You and I talked a month ago that there was going to be an unexpected event would happen. And nobody would have believed it would be a hurricane hitting the northeast of this country. I think this race was and has been always close and it has had a slight electoral advantage for the President. That's changed in the last ten days, as you pointed out. It's now gone from, it's still a slight electoral advantage for the President, but it's now a slight national popular vote advantage for the President in the course of this. A lot of votes still to be cast. But that's the shift that's happened and I think because of Sandy and because of Governor Christie.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's look at the Electoral College. You just mentioned how the night might play out. The first polls to close in the state of Virginia. And that is a must-win state for Governor Romney. I want to put it in his column right there. But it's not even enough. He really has to sweep the whole east coast, doesn't he, at the beginning of the night? Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire, as well?
DOWD: Yeah. He has got to sweep all the states that touch the Atlantic Ocean, really, to have a chance in this race. And I think Virginia is going to tell us a lot. It will tell us if this night ends early for Mitt Romney or if we're in for a long night. Virginia is going to tell us that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's right, but if he wins, he still has to do well in the Midwest. Win either Ohio or Wisconsin. Because look what happens if we give that to President Obama, Ohio, Wisconsin, where he's ahead in both states, he's five votes short of the 270 electoral votes he needs. All that leaves then is Nevada, Colorado or Iowa. The President ahead or tied in all three of the states right.
DOWD: That's the situation that Mitt Romney is in. He's got a very narrow path to an electoral college victory. And exactly as you laid it out. It's as if he has to draw an inside straight in this campaign today in order to win this tonight. He has got to do all those things and the path is still narrow for him to win this.
