Romney’s Tipping Point

Has the presidential race come to a crucial turn? The Obama campaign hopes not.

Every four years, the race for the White House is defined by a turning point, a period when the contest breaks toward one side and the other can never recover. In the winter and spring of 1996, a rebounding economy gave Bill Clinton a lead over Bob Dole that he never relinquished. In 2008, the growing economic crisis in early September shut down any hope that Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign had left.

If Republican Mitt Romney is inaugurated as president in January, history may look to June as the month in which President Obama's fate was sealed.

This may be the month, seen in retrospect, in which it became clear the economic winds that propelled Clinton to a second term won't be at Obama's back. Administration officials barely tried to spin last week’s dismal jobs report, an acknowledgment that there was nothing to brag about. Read more.......