Barack Obama is campaigning in several Western states this weekend.
Today, he was in Reno & Vegas, baby!
Beating John McCain in his own backyard, Obama maintains the lead in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Even in McCain's homestate of Arizona, Obama is giving a McCain a real run for his money!
Sen. Obama leads by more than six points in Colorado, according to an average of recent polls by the nonpartisan Real Clear Politics. In Nevada, he is ahead of Sen. McCain by three points and in New Mexico has an eight-point advantage.
WSJ: Candidates Focus on Western States
In fact, it's not only in the South where Obama is changing the map, but also out West and it's not due only to the changing demographics of the region. While there is an explosion in population growth and a high Hispanic population in these Western states, the Obama campaign strategy and ground game are largely responsible for expanding the Democratic map.
And the coattails are long, all across the country.
I can't imagine with a wide lead like that you wouldn't have coattails, especially given the better image of the Democratic Party," Pew director Andrew Kohut said. The impact of a rising Obama tide is being felt in congressional districts that are primarily Democratic but held by veteran Republicans like moderate Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., said Stuart Rothenberg, who edits the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan analysis of American elections.
Rothenberg also said Obama could have coattails in black-voter turnout in states with significant black populations and close Senate races, like Mississippi, Georgia and North Carolina. "I wouldn't purely explain it as an Obama tide, but a Democratic tide that Obama is taking advantage of and adding to," Rothenberg said. Nowhere is this symbiosis more evident than in Virginia, where Warner is heavily favored to win a U.S. Senate seat over another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore.
Some 436,000 new voters were registered this year, with 40 percent under age 25 — a group that has been going to Obama by roughly 2-1 in national polls. In Virginia, Democrats' biggest task now may be to exploit a kind of reverse coattails for Obama by identifying ticket splitters and convincing them to switch to Obama.
SJ: Analysis: Obama, Democrats may have long coattails
As Obama travels to states thought to be unwinnable for Democrats in 2004, John McCain is defending Red States, hoping to salvage what remains after his wreck of a campaign failed to even solidify his base.
While the McCain campaign post mortems are already being penned, the election has not been won yet and the Obama campaign continues to press this point at every opportunity telling voters to get out to vote early and step up to help others get to the polls. They aren't measuring the drapes in the White House yet, despite what McCain says.
Obama is running at full speed to the finish line.
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