It's pretty badass that it's that close in Virginia at all.

I've heard that Bob Barr has some popularity down there.  I hope he campaigns... strongly. :)

Great.

I'll bet the people who find the Gallup poll troubling will suddenly be cynical of "polls".

Hell yeah!

First of all it's sooo late in the season,

Second of all, whats up with "Pure McCain"

That is a play off of Pure Cocaine.  If it isn't than I dont what it is.

Not that Rasmussen is always great, but being that close is pretty incredible, regardless. If Obama wins VA, it will shake the GOP to its core.

Didn't you just leave. :p

Seriously though, glad you're already back and with good news to boot!

I work for a local party in VA, and let me tell you that we are fired up and ready to go! With Barack Obama and Mark Warner at the top of the ticket, this is the year we turn Virginia blue!

"McCain has lost ground among both male voters over the past month."

What, there's only two dudes planning to vote in VA this year?

There are a lot of things lining up to make Obama win, not least of which is McCain himself.

My gun-collecting friends I spent the weekend with are very cynical about Obama, but they think McCain is useless.  They are precisely the kind of folks to answer "McCain" on a survey, but who will be likely to forget about going to the polls in Nov if there is a good rerun of McHale's Navy on that day or a loose tile that needs fixing.  They are upside down on their mortgage, both working and economically strapped.  She's an RN and he has a prosthetic leg and they are fed up with the condition of healthcare.  They are incredibly pissed off with the state of the nation and blame the current administration for it.

Remind me again who is going to rush enthusiastically out to the polls and vote GOP in the general election?

Hey SG, I hear that there's an absolutely brutal new SUSA poll out on Franken vs. Coleman.

Yes. Obama is a rock star. And in the eyes of the media, he's Jesus too, judging by the Associated Press picture, appropriately accompanying a story today on MSNBC, in which Obama is seeing being "baptized" by the holy spirit, so to speak.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25192261/

For the rest of my life get to say, "I cast one of the votes that elected the very first black President"

No Democrat has won Virginia's electoral votes since LBJ wiped the floor with Goldwater in 1964.  Not even Southerners Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  For a black guy from Chicago to be competitive here...These are 13 electoral votes McCain cannot afford to lose.

Forgive me, SG, but I'm just not seeing the light here.

It's great that VA is in play this season, but I thought that had been pretty expected at this point.  Furthermore, Virginia has 13 electoral votes.  It's not a small state electorally the same way as, say, New Hampshire...but in order for this to be something about BO actually fulfilling his "Rock Star" status electorally instead of narratively, shouldn't he be polling outside of the margin of error?

I'd much rather see Obama start polling outside the margin in OH, less than 8 points down in FL, ahead at all in MI...maybe even actually being competitive in GA like the Obama campaign thinks it can be (RCP pegs it at McCain +13!).

I don't know.  I'm really not opposed to changing the presidential strategy map, personally. It just drives me crazy that right now we're hoping, hoping, hoping, for victories in Colorado and Virginia to eke us over the electoral vote threshold to the White House instead of going after FL, OH, and MI hard.

Total EV value of Colorado and Virginia is a meager 23 electoral votes.  By comparison, Michigan, Florida, and Ohio total 67 electoral votes.

Barack Obama could even win both Colorado and Virginia, but still lose the election if he loses in MI, FL, OH, and NH.

I understand that Barack wants to change the map, but we ought to be asking ourselves, is this really the best strategy for Democrats to be pursuing the Presidency with?  Can we really say that Obama is a rock star because he's polling even with McCain in VA?

This turned out to be long and kind of concern-trollish, but, for me, the review of the electoral map that this diary prompted really just left me boggled...if anything, we should be working much, much harder--not basking in the glamor of being tied in what used to be a solid red state...