Is New Hampshire the new Ohio?

Tiny New Hampshire is getting a lot of attention all of a sudden. President Barack Obama just swung through the Granite State on Thursday on his first visit there in more than a month. 

With Ohio leaning once again towards Obama and national polls showing a squeaker of a race, the election could very well hinge on New Hampshire's four electoral votes.

President Obama had enjoyed a fairly comfortable lead there until Mitt Romney's win in the first debate caught him up in the polls. 

Now, New Hampshire looks like it might be in the running for the Republican. Or at least close enough to make the Obama campaign sweat a little bit. 

On Monday, a poll of likely voters in the Granite State showed a 47 percent to 47 percent split, according to CNN.

The survey was before Obama's solid performance in the second debate but the mere threat of losing the state's 4 votes was enough to spring the campaign into action in New Hampshire.

The president rallied a crowd of 6,000 supporters and hit Romney on jobs, taxes and women's issues, reports the Boston Globe.

“Listen, New Hampshire, you’ve heard of the New Deal. You’ve heard of the Square Deal and the Fair Deal,” Obama said. “Mitt Romney is trying to sell you a sketchy deal.” 

Ohio's 18 electoral votes have been an ace up the sleeve for both campaigns' path to the White House but is particularly important for Romney. 

According to analysis by Politico, if Romney doesn't win Ohio, he’ll need to win most of the remaining swing states to get to 270.

The Obama campaign is spreading their money and attention across the states that Romney will need if he doesn't win Ohio, including New Hampshire. 

“They both need us,” Tom Rath, a veteran New Hampshire Republican, told Politico of the two candidates.

“There’s this great scene with Tracy and Hepburn where he says, ‘There’s not much meat there, but what there is is choice.’ And that’s us. We could become dispositive this election.”

Both campaigns have reasons to be hopeful. 

Romney has personal ties to the state as a former governor of neighboring Massachusetts and a summer home owner on Lake Winnipesaukee. Residents of New Hampshire tend to favor lower taxes and smaller government, which may play to Romney's message, reports the Washington Post. 

But the state also enjoys a low unemployment rate of 5.7 percent and is typically socially liberal. New Hampshire has historically favored abortion rights and approved same-sex marriages in 2010. 

Politico reports that some in New Hampshire believe the race could be as close as 2000, when George W. Bush won by just 7,000 votes. 

Aside from Obama's 9-point win in 2008, both George W. Bush and John Kerry both won New Hampshire by a single point, reports The Washington Post.