This year's election is obviously one of many firsts. Not only coult there be the first black president or the first woman vice-president in the White House, the campaigning process itself is changing from the trends of the past. There are six major states that are expected to be toss-ups in the election--Colorado, Florida, Virginia, Nevada, New Hampshire and Ohio--that add up to 78 electoral votes and will have a very important impact in November. In a tally included in the New York Times article, Economic Unrest Shifts Electoral Battlegrounds, Obama is predicted to have a stronghold in states that represent 260 electoral votes, while McCain has a hold on states equaling 160 votes--270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidential election.
Being from Virginia, I'm very interested in how my state will vote in November. About a month ago, Obama came to Lynchburg, my hometown, and spoke at the high school I graduated from. However, many of my friends and acquaintances from Lynchburg, I know, will vote for McCain. Im my opinion, Northern Virginia, the Chesapeake area, Charlottesville and Richmond will all most likely go for Obama, while the rest of the state will probable be for McCain. The question is which part of the state will make up the majority.
States that have been Republican strongholds in the past, such as North Carolina and Florida, are now being strongly targeted by Obama, while Pennsylvania and other traditionally Democratic states are being targeted by McCain. The New York Times article points out that the economic crisis is one of the main reasons that the campaign strategies and targeting techniques have been shaken up this election. I'm interested to see how the economic problems pan out and consequently how the various toss-up states vote in November.