Stuart Rothenberg lists Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, Nevada and Michigan as the five states most telling and decisive in this election. Ohio Straussians: notice the location of your state on that list . . .
But seriously, Rothenberg gives a good review and one that is also (probably) going to be good for future reference.
Good to have you in our time zone, Julie, albeit only briefly.
And looking forward to seeing you here.
It's also the only state that begins with a vowel.....
Thank you, Joe. It will be great to put names and faces together and (for me) a delight to have a whole evening of uninterrupted adult conversation! Oh . . . wait, I forgot Schramm will be there.
It's also the only state ends the same way that it starts . . . and it's "high" or "hi" in the middle.
Stu Rothenberg is mostly right. PA and WI (from the Kerry '04 column) are not going to McCain. IA and NM (from the Bush '04 column) are lost. I would quibble with him on MI and NH. MI is ultimately a Democratic swamp. The dead hand of legacy unionism will reassert itself. McCain has a real chance in NH -- smart electorate that cares about honest government and fiscal discipline. Also, McCain has campaigned very intensively here in two cycles. (Yeah, the peaceniks are strong there, but Iraq may be waning as an issue.) If McCain wins, his map will look a lot like GWB's four years ago.