As the presidential race enters its final stretch following both parties' conventions, President Barack Obama still has the lead, and the Mitt Romney camp is trying to downplay it in the polls. According to NBC's First Read team, Obama might retain the lead, or at least the helm of the narrative, unless Romney fleshes out his tax policy proposal. Over the weekend, Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan declined to provide specifics on what loopholes they would close in the tax code, prompting Obama to pounce. First Read writes that unless Romney begins giving specifics, his plan could be tarred as a clone of former President George W. Bush's. Taxes weren't the only topic Romney had trouble addressing, though; he also struggled to answer questions on his omission of Afghanistan from his nomination acceptance speech and on his approach to health care reform, according to First Read. Those troubles came as Romney pulled ads in Pennsylvania and Michigan and as news broke that in August, Obama had topped his fundraising haul for the first time since April.
