State of the race: Cautious

A blink at what's being said about the presidential race at this moment...

NYT: "The state-by-state landscape facing Mr. Romney is more daunting than he expected by this stage in the contest. He anticipated, aides said, to be in a position of strength in at least some of the states that turned Democratic in 2008 for the first time in a generation, but few of them show signs of breaking decisively his way, and Mr. Obama still has more and clearer paths to 270 electoral votes. ... The president and his aides are aware that everything could change in an instant, particularly with three presidential debates looming, and said Democrats could not be complacent."

MSNBC: Asked by Chuck Todd today if the Obama campaign is "winning right now," Senior Strategist David Axelrod tepidly answered, "I think we're doing well..."

CBS: On This Morning today, Norah O'Donnell asked asked Romney campaign adviser Dan Senor about the state of the campaign. "I think fine," he said. "These polls are going to move all over the place and I think there’s a tendency to overreact, in the punditry class, to the daily news that furnishes the headlines each day. The reality is it’s a very close race. Both campaigns have agreed that it’s going to be a close race right until the end. We’ve seen some movement that’s not positive; we’ve seen some movement that’s very positive. ..."

Washington Post: "One GOP strategist close to the campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid advice, said that this is a time in the election cycle when voters begin to take a last good look at the candidates and that the first debate must be the moment for Romney to rise. If he doesn’t do well there, the strategist concluded, 'I am not sure folks will pay as much attention to later ones.'"

ABC News: "Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told colleagues at the House GOP Conference Thursday morning not to get distracted from the party’s efforts to defeat Democrats this fall. But he did not specifically mention leaked videos of Mitt Romney at a fundraiser that have plagued the GOP presidential campaign this week. According to Republicans leaving the meeting, Ryan did not bring up the videos, but told his colleagues not to get distracted by daily polls. 'He just said they have a plan laid out and they are following the plan and they are going to do things they need to do and not to get distracted or discouraged by what happens on the everyday stuff,'  Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Ida., said..."