US politics "nerd" ready to report on Presidential election

THE Project co-anchor Charlie Pickering will be reporting on the Presidential Election from the US from Sunday.

The self-confessed American politics nerd will be filing stories ranging from the serious issue of gun control to a more light-hearted look at Presidential dogs.

"I'm going to have to control my desire to talk about internal battleground polls," he laughed.

"I have to find stories that our audience can relate to.

"Given that the Colorado massacre occurred this year and yet gun control is not an issue, a lot of Aussies don't understand that. We're going to explain why Presidential candidates are always going to be a little too scared to take the issue on."

Pickering will then be in Chicago with the Obama campaign on election day.

"It will either be one of the best or worst nights of my life," he said.

He believes Romney's most crucial misstep so far has been his infamous "47 per cent" gaff.

"I think the release of the tape of Romney talking about 47 per cent of Americans he's given up on damaged him a lot," he said.

"We all know politicians put on an act to some degree, their public persona, but when we got a snapshot of the real Romney it wasn't a pretty picture."

Obama, on the other hand, is still recovering from his poor performance in the first televised debate.

"Obama was damaged by the first debate," Pickering said.

"No one's sure what his strategy was, why he lacked energy and why he didn't engage.

"It made Romney look viable, like he could be the president. It was the first time he became a plausible candidate and the race has been tight ever since."

Pickering doesn't believe there will be a repeat of the Florida recount from the 2000 Presidential Election but he says it will be an extremely close result.

"It is possible that the popular vote might go one way and the Electoral College vote another way," he said.

"On the numbers at the moment you would have to say the slight advantage is with Obama in that he's holding Ohio and that's the key to the election. As Richard Nixon said 'it's always about Ohio'.

"The other big thing is that Obama seems to have an advantage on the ground of getting people out to vote."

The Project airs Sundays through Fridays at 6pm on Ten.