It ain’t over ’til it’s over but it ain’t looking good for Mitt Romney going into tonight’s Presidential debates. And I just hope he doesn’t get tricked when the Democrats try to bait him with the latest polls. After all, a lot of polling is based on conversations with very few people, something like 1500 for even some of the more respected surveys. The most promising and narrowest poll is the National Journal’s which shows he and Obama lining up equally at 47% to 47% in a survey of likely voters. With registered voters, Obama leads Romney 49%-44%. The National Journal’s poll does show voters are still more confident in Romney when it comes to the economy. But the Quinnipiac/ABC News poll that shows Obama edging out Romney in terms of voter confidence around jobs and the economy is disturbing to say the least. Granted, his lead in those polls is incremental, in some cases, he leads by just a single percent. But, the idea that Obama is more qualified to create jobs or fix our economy is the issue that Romney needs to address tonight. To address and correct.

When I read today, that the one thing Republican candidate Mitt Romney has to do to win tonight’s debate is explain why Massachusetts needed healthcare reform but our country doesn’t, I thought why is that so hard? He has certainly been asked that question many times before. Hopefully, Romney will just say we were ahead of the pack. Healthcare does need to be reformed. Costs are spiraling. But we could afford the plan we passed in Massachusetts and right now, at this snapshot in time, the U.S. can’t afford Obamacare. I am really feeling Romney’s pain right now and I do hope someone out there will say, maybe Romney should say it himself, that this is when Romney is at his best. When the chips are down and things don’t look good, this is the guy who can turn things right side up. He’s done it many times before which is why I am voting for him this time around. First at Bain; then at the Olympics.

For Obama,the key question is going to be why is unemployment still at 8% when his administration put 5 trillion dollars into job creation with its stimulus plan?

Having said that, Romney does need to get more specific about his plan for the economy. He did tell Denver television station KDVR that he is considering a 20% across the board tax cut. He also said he is looking at eliminating popular deductions like the deduction on mortgage interest and donated items as a way to reduce the deficit. My guess is most Americans are going to be listening closely tonight with an ear to how much of the cash in their wallets they will get to keep and how much Uncle Sam is going to ask for. Or to job creation. If voters don’t know Romney, tonight is a critical opportunity for Romney to show that he truly is an expert in the financial turnaround.