Battleground: Great (Lakes) expectations
Posted: Thursday, August 21, 2008 9:10 AM by Mark Murray
The AP curtain-raises what it dubs the "Great Lakes" region. "The GOP presidential candidate is mounting strong challenges to Democratic rival Barack Obama in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and eyeing Minnesota -- four states that have thwarted Republicans in at least four straight elections. The Arizona senator is also fighting to hang on to Ohio, a bellwether that President Bush won twice." Meanwhile, Obama is fighting to turn Indiana.
PENNSYLVANIA: The New York Times interviews voters in rural Pennsylvania, who have doubts about Obama and also McCain. “From the desolation of Aliquippa — where the Jones & Laughlin steel mill loomed at the foot of the main boulevard — to the fading beauty of Beaver Falls to the neatly tended homes of retired steel workers in Hopewell, one hears much hesitating talk about Mr. Obama, some simply quizzical or skeptically political, and some not-so-subtly racial.”
Also: “This said, Mr. McCain quickens few pulses. Vietnam, where he served in the military and was held captive for more than five years, seems distant. And not all laugh at his commercials poking fun at Mr. Obama’s ‘celebrity’ status.”
