Today's electoral college map

So, today Ohio swings back to a marginal McCain lead, and despite New Hampshire's fondness of all things mavericky it looks like McBombit's solid cardboard maverick facade is starting to wobble a little, as BO holds a marginal lead. But, most interesting today is seeing Virginia in BO's column for the third straight day....nice.

A few critical swing states seem to look much firmer for Obama, they are; Colorado, Iowa and New Mexico. In the same token, it seems McBombit has convinced the majority of the good people of Missouri that he's the right madman for the job. However, regardless of polling a month out, one thing's guaranteed they will all be fought to the bitter end, and it's not too late to make a difference. So if you're anywhere near any of the states you need to get yourself down to the local BO campaign office, and get door knocking.

As for the other traditional 'swing states'; Ohio, Indiana, Nevada, Virginia, PA and Florida. Currently BO is holding that slight advantage in Virginia, and a stronger one in PA, but he's still remaining competitive in Nevada, Ohio, Florida and Indiana they will all be tough fights, and there is plenty of time for us all to make a difference.

Finally, there are a few other states that could yet turn into tight fights, a couple of them are not good to see; Washington and Oregon. These should be BO's but he's not quite been able to consistently pull ten points clear, which is what you want to see before feeling safe, so there's still work to be done.

The other state, and perhaps more of a surprise to many, not me of course! is West Virginia. Yeah, that West Virginia, the state that Hillary won by a forty point margin or something. The state that's just jam packed full (97%) of all those 'hard working white folk' that aren't supposed to like the guy with the funny name. Anyway, that state has recently been polling only at around +4 points for McBombit, remarkable and as such can only be considered marginal for McCain.

There are many reasons why this state is worth fighting for, WV feels a bad economy worse than just about any state, and when Obama talks about 'the forgotten' the people of WV are precisely the kind of American he means. It's traditionally Democratic, Bush only took it for the first time from Gore in 2000.

The coal industry, whether it's the oxymoron that is 'clean' coal or just plain old dirty coal, has got problems there. WV is being both sustained and destroyed by it. There are fights to take up for coal worker's rights; better wages, working and living conditions. Wages have shrunk while the coal corp's profits increase, and a stronger union can only help those that work in it.

Also, just about anybody who doesn't work in the industry has been outraged by its disregard for the laws of the state. In collusion with it's Washington DC Republican lackeys, legislation has even been adopted retrospectively to cover corporations that had previously broken the law. There's plenty to get our teeth into in West Virginia. Even if the state is to be lost this time around, fighting for it will force McBombit into spending money where he doesn’t want to, and it will lay a solid foundation for a follow-up win in 2012.

If you want to get a bit of an insight into WV and the people there, check out this entry about the Democratic fight for Appalachia. I wrote it sometime ago, and even if I say so myself it's well worth a read, and it features a must watch documentary.