Uber pundit Larry Sabato is now forecasting Florida as “Lean Romney” in his latest crystal ball of the November elections:
We’ve long thought that in a close presidential race, Florida would likely end up in Romney’s column. Given that it was the president’s third weakest win in 2008, it naturally — along with more Republican Indiana and North Carolina — would be one of the states to fall out of Obama’s orbit in a much tighter race. So we’re moving Florida to Leans Republican, even though the polling there still indicates it is a toss-up.
… David Paleologos, the veteran Suffolk University pollster, went so far as to say earlier this week that he would no longer poll Florida, North Carolina and Virginia because they were obviously moving to Romney. He might be right about North Carolina — we’ve had it rated leans Republican for more than a year — but Florida and Virginia, to us, still remain highly competitive, even if we’ve moved Florida to Romney’s column. We of course reserve the right to put states back in the toss-up column as the conditions on the ground merit, as we have done with Virginia.
