Rove: Romney Can Win Election With '3-2-1' Plan

Polls show presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on the rise with a chance to win the White House by carrying a “3-2-1” strategy of winning back states that Senator John McCain lost in 2008, Republican strategist Karl Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

President Barack Obama “long ago lost his chance to duplicate his 2008 performance,” Rove wrote in Wednesday’s Opinion piece. “A record of failure will do that. He's now forced to fight for states he easily won in 2008. The odds now narrowly favor a Romney win.”

To capture the magic 270 electoral votes needed to win, Rove said, Romney needs to win the states McCain carried in 2008 and regain Nebraska’s second district.

Then the “3-2-1” consists of the following:

3. Recapture historically Republican states Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia, the first two of which are sliding away from Obama;
2. Regain Florida and Ohio which flipped to Democratic in 2008 and are both winnable;
1. Win just one more state, with many poised to tip to the GOP to choose from, among them: New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, or New Mexico.

Rove noted that Romney is also helped by the 2010 Census that cost blue states Massachusetts, New York and Illinois congressional seats — and electoral votes — while red states such as South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas gained seats.