The gist of Michael Cooper‘s 5.5 N.Y. Times article about swing-state prospects in the 2012 Presidential election is that (a) Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin are where the action will be, and that (b) despite “a range of economic data provided by Moody’s Analytics [showing] that all nine states are rebounding and that most now have unemployment rates below the national average, the so-called grumpy voter effect” will kick in to some extent and perhaps even prove decisive.

Explanation: “Despite economic improvement in a state, if the economic situation in a state is really too bad the grumpy voter will discount the improvement.”

Not to mention the various enlightened voters of all stripes who want to rid the country of the nation’s first socialist Muslim foreign-born president who routinely kowtows and bows down to foreign despots, and who wants to rob Americans of their economic freedom by forcing them to accept a limited government-funded health care system and to live their toothless, tattooed, trailer-trash, fast-food lifestyles with impugnity.

Bottom line: The grumps could hand Romney a win.