Credit: National Journal

“Being from Colorado, we have a saying, if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it’ll change,” Romney Political Director Rich Beeson told Politico yesterday. “If you don’t like a poll coming out of a state, wait five minutes and you’ll see one that you do like.”

The longtime Colorado GOP operative held a briefing for reporters yesterday, making the case for why the race is tight and likely to be until the bitter end. Things have not been going in Romney’s direction in the key swing state of Ohio according to recent polls, but with 41 days left — a lifetime in presidential politics — and a big map of battleground states, predicting outcomes is little more than a political parlor game at this point.

Perhaps more importantly, Beeson called Ohio “inside the margin of error” making clear the Romney campaign intends to play hard for the Buckeye State.

Per Politico’s Ginger Gibson:

“If we lose Ohio, can we still win?” Beeson said, repeating the question asked of him by reporters. “I say if its and buts were candy and nuts everyday would be Christmas.… I just don’t deal in if-then statements.”

Beeson compared states on the map to children (he has two boys,) saying individual states can’t be written off.

“It’s like kids out there — you’re not ever going to say I’m going to lose one of my kids,” Beeson said. He added, “So we don’t sit down, I don’t sit down and sort of lop those off. I prefer to look at the map holistically.”

Back here in Colorado, things looks much better for Romney. Every nonpartisan poll with legitimate sampling has found the race within the margin of error, usually with Obama up 1-2 points — a statistically meaningless lead.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the Romney campaign, no doubt, but better to have those tough weeks now than in October. Making matters tougher for the Romney campaign recently has been the Obama campaign’s massive spending advantage.

Despite being outspent 3-1 in Colorado by the Obama campaign in recent weeks, Romney’s polling has held up. When that gap gets closed or Romney is able to overtake Obama in spending, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a spate of Colorado polls begin to show Romney taking the lead.