Krauthammer: Obama Would Win if Election Were Held Tomorrow

Syndicated columnist and political commentator Charles Krauthammer had some surprising news for Bill O’Reilly Monday night on "The O'Reilly Factor."  After a discussion of the president's campaign strategies, Krauthammer unequivocally told the Fox News host that if the election were held tomorrow, Obama would win.

But there are some caveats. Krauthammer added:

If he wins either now or November in your hypothetical, it will be a narrow win because he will eke it out with these constituencies...

If you look at all the polls, the average is that he's got a 2-point edge in the popular vote.  It's almost inconceivable that you'd have that strong an [excess] in the overall vote and lose in the electoral college.

But hope is not lost for Romney voters.  Though Krauthammer was not optimistic about Romney's chances if the election were held tomorrow, he reminded viewers that a lot can change by November:

I think all this negative stuff against Romney has had an effect of making people hesitant to switch from Obama to Romney. I think if Romney humanizes himself in the debates and does reasonably well, the way Reagan did in his debates, and [becomes] acceptable to meet the threshold for president, he wins, and I think that's likely to happen.

Watch the entire interview, via Mediaite, below:

Bill O'Reilly, it must be said, began the program by provocatively pointing out a number of polls showing overwhelming support for Barack Obama, saying: "It looks like the president's going to win in a landslide."

Krauthammer responded: "Not really," pointing out that some of the president's strongest constituencies-- the young, African-Americans, and Hispanics-- will likely have a depressed turnout.

Some who "swooned in the aisles" in 2008, Krauthammer argues, will stay home in 2012 because they "know the reality of what Obama has wrought."

O'Reilly proceeded to discuss women as another voting bloc, and Krauthammer said that Obama's campaign is based on one idea.

“You go out and you try to seduce one ethnic or socioeconomic or gender constituency after another. Because you can’t run as a national candidate who has improved the country.”

He summarized: "He cannot make the appeal, 'I'm the president of all Americans and America is better off.'   If he does that, he loses."

(H/T: Mediaite)