There's two ways of looking at the "why the race is close" question. Given the condition of the United States, both domestically and its foreign policy, Mitt Romney should win the election in a landslide. Barack Obama's incompetence is manifest, and another four years of his policies are indeed horrifying to contemplate.
But then, given the fact, that almost none of Obama's bungling is being fairly reported in the "mainstream media," that they are doing everything they can to destroy Romney and cover for Obama, it's amazing, from that standpoint, that the race is as close as it is. Romney makes a mistake and it's plastered all over the country. Obama is protected as tightly as possible. But, as the Nazi well knew, the bigger the lie, the more people are apt to believe it.
Why is the race close? Because America is not the same country as before.
Basically, the United States has become the Chicago teachers' union--many people living off of somebody else (at least the teachers work for it). And they want more. About 47% of the country doesn't pay any income tax. Over 8,000,000 are living on disability. Over 45,000,000 on food stamps. 67% of the people who claim to Democrats say the government isn't doing enough. This is, obviously, not the America of the past, nor is it a recipe for continued greatness.
Think about it. If somebody comes along and says, "I'm going to cut your taxes," that means nothing to half the people. Indeed, that half wants the other half taxed more.
If Barack Obama can convince enough people that the Republicans are going to take away their government benefits, then that's another countless number of millions of people who will vote for Obama.
And, of course, there is the anti-God vote--a growing number of people who want their immoral rights, not just defended, but accepted as mainstream and given the same moral status as the laws which God has given to us. They will vote for Obama, too.
So, it doesn't matter how bad the economy is. It doesn't matter how big a liar Barack Obama is. It doesn't matter how disastrous American foreign policy is.
Romney was exactly right. Obama has almost half the people ready to vote for him because it's in their selfish interest to do so. People will vote what they perceive to be their own interests, and the United States government, led by the Democratic Party, has made dependency and immorality the "interest" of about half the country. What a sad, sad thing that is.
Alexander Tyler once again: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." The United States has been living on borrowed time anyway.