As the campaign settles in for the home stretch, there are many reasons to believe that the Obama campaign will have trouble closing the deal. Chief among them are the numbers:

Unemployment :

When the President took office: 7.8%

Now: 8.3%

Median Household Income :

When the President took office: Almost $55,000

Now: Less than $51,000

Price of Gas :

When the President took office: $1.85 per gallon

Now: $3.78 per gallon (more than double!)

National Debt :

When the President took office: $10.6 trillion

Now: Exceeded $16 trillion last week

If you and I are aware of these figures, you can bet that those on the left are, too. And as the election approaches, some will ramp up a sort of domestic "psy ops" -- an effort to convince those disinclined to vote for Obama that he's going to win anyway. Given how much more enthusiastic about voting Republicans are than Democrats, it's one of the only ways they have to demoralize pro-Romney voters in the hopes of keeping them home.

This piece by Politico, titled "Advantage, Obama" is -- intentionally or not -- one of this genre. It reports nothing really new -- only that there are more paths to 270 electoral votes for Obama than there are for Romney. Well, that was true in 2004, in 2000 . . . and, in fact, ever since California and New York became dependable Democratic states. Supposedly, Politico tells us, unnamed leakers "intimately" involved with the Romney campaign say Obama has a "high single digit" edge in Ohio; the RCP average of polls shows Obama ahead by 1.5%.

Obama has an enthusiasm problem. His speech at the convention -- and the Democrats' treatment of God, Jerusalem, abortion and free birth control -- isn't likely to bring in a lot of swing voters (who's really going to say, "Hey, I may not have a job -- but at least I can get free condoms and a partial birth abortion!!")?

Polls are going to go back and forth. But recall that at this time in 1980, Carter was running four points ahead of Reagan. Dukakis was 17 points ahead of George HW Bush. Both won rather handily, I recall.

Romney's campaign has more money than Obama's, conservative SuperPacs have more money than liberal ones, and Republicans have more enthusiastic voters than the Democrats. Nothing is certain in this life . . .but one thing we DO know: One of the sure-fire ways we can lose this race is if we allow MSM psy ops (intentional or not!) to demoralize us.