The general: The battlegrounds
Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2008 9:26 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
States
The Los Angeles Times writes, "Obama is running in a climate that strongly favors Democrats. Advisors say he is well-placed to expand the map of Democratic states to Colorado and Virginia, a pair of Bush states now more friendly to his party -- and might even add such GOP strongholds as Georgia. Yet a wholesale recoloring of the nation's red-and-blue electoral map is hard to fathom, strategists and independent analysts say.”
“Instead, the Illinois senator probably will battle McCain most fiercely in states around the Great Lakes and in the Southwest -- those with the narrowest vote margins” in '04. More: "McCain stands a plausible chance of carrying perhaps half a dozen states that Kerry won. The Arizona senator's popularity with independents puts states such as Wisconsin and New Hampshire within reach.”
“Two other states that went Democratic in the last presidential contest -- Pennsylvania and Michigan -- are also top McCain targets, thanks partly to Obama's trouble bonding with working-class white voters. But, pollsters say, McCain's standing has been inflated by the protracted Democratic nomination fight. Now that the attacks on Obama by rival Hillary Rodham Clinton will recede into the past, they say, McCain's poll numbers are likely to drop."
Will Bob Barr take enough away from McCain to put some unusual states in play? The Washington Times: "Polls in Georgia and North Carolina over the past two weeks show Mr. Barr winning 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively, of the presidential vote. That would help keep presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama within striking distance of Mr. McCain in those states, which together account for more electoral votes than Florida, Pennsylvania or Ohio."
On a conference call yesterday with reporters, former Virginia Attorney General and Republican ’05 gubernatorial nominee Jerry Kilgore (R) and VA GOP delegate Chris Saxman held a conference call with reporters yesterday, seeking to dispel the notion that Virginia would be competitive for Obama, NBC’s Katie Mulhall reports. Saxman said that Virginians would not stand for Obama’s “never ending tax increases” that would burden small businesses, while Kilgore said that Obama’s F rating from the NRA would turn-off many voters, particularly in Southwest Virginia. Kilgore, not surprisingly, also brought up Obama’s April comments about small-town voters who are “bitter” and cling to guns and faith.
