Mitt Romney could not have timed his comeback in the presidential race any better.
With a tenacious Romney dominating a listless Barack Obama on stage during the first presidential debate, it’s important — perhaps most important — to consider that Romney’s “Direct Mitt” occurred on the same day that hundreds of thousands of Florida voters received in the mail their early ballot.
Most of Florida’s 67 county Supervisor of Elections mailed out ballots to the state’s early voters on Monday, as ballots are required by law to be sent no later than 35 days before the General Election. That means most of these voters, including myself, received their ballot on the same day Romney delivered one of presidential campaign history’s best debate performances.
If the old math holds that most voters return their absentee and early ballot within 72 hours of receiving it, the last thing many of them will remember is Romney’s win on Wednesday.
Imagine if Romney delivered the kind of performance he presented last night on November 5th, the night before Election Day — well, that’s sorta what he just did. Because Election Day is no longer on November 6 in Florida, it’s on the day someone receives their early ballot. And for hundreds of thousands of Floridians, that was yesterday.