Team Romney's Game Plan: Win These 6 States

While Team Romney certainly isn't expecting a landslide win for its man this November, the Republican's campaign staffers see a clear—but narrow—path to 270 electoral votes and victory, the Washington Post finds. The campaign plans to focus on winning back three GOP-leaning states Obama took in 2008: Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia. Aides believe that if they can win those three, plus swing states Ohio and Florida, Romney will only need to flip one more state Obama carried in 2008 to win. Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico are possible, but advisers are most optimistic about Iowa and New Hampshire.

Romney's campaign also aims to put Pennsylvania and Michigan, where his father was a three-term governor, into play. His advisers say they're optimistic because they believe Obama won't be able to rekindle the enthusiasm that brought large numbers of young voters, Hispanics, and African-Americans to the polls in 2008. "They changed the composition of the electorate, and they won by big margins,” Romney pollster Neil Newhouse says. “The problem in '12 is there just isn’t the enthusiasm. The bloom is off the rose." (More Election 2012 stories.)