White House senior adviser David Plouffe on Friday said he doesn't think the presidential race was changed by the first debate.
Plouffe was asked whether he thought the "fundamentals" of the race had been upeneded by Mitt Romney's strong performance against President Obama in Denver.
"I don't think so, Chuck," Plouffe said to MSNBC host Chuck Todd. "Obviously, though, we'll be able to evaluate that in the coming days. My sense is we've got a pretty important lead in some battleground states."
Plouffe cited higher approval-than-disapproval numbers for the president in a number of battleground states as evidence that Obama is on solid ground.
"First of all, the president's got a high support level — 49, 50, 51, depending on the state. We like what we're seeing in terms of the early vote and absentee ballot requests," Plouffe said. "So we don't think that that's going to change, but we're going to be able to measure this."
Still, Plouffe added, polling over the next week will tell the tale.
"But you know, we'll see where we are next week. My sense is the fundamental structure of the campaign's not changed," he said.
