Last week, Charlotte NC got to see Joe Biden, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama on three separate occasions. The TV (so they tell me) is full of campaign ads by both Obama and McCain. Now, Obama and Biden are appearing together in Greensboro on Saturday. The campaign has been really busy locally, organizing the feet on the ground.
Does this mean that NC is a surprising swing state of 2008? If NC is indicative of any kind of trend and it goes blue, a dozen other red states will go blue as well.
Or perhaps this is the way for Obama to utilize his money advantage and force McCain to spend money defending a red state instead of advertising where it really counts? The whole McCain stunt about "suspension" of the campaign and delay of the debate effort has, among other factors, a goal to provide advantage for McCain to save up some money by forcing Obama to stop out-advertising him for a few days. Especially now that the polls have gone really downhill for McCain.
Thoughts?
On fivethirtyeight NC is dispalyed as pink - not red. It's #15 on their list of tipping point states. They give Obama a 28% chance of winning NC's 15 votes.
The latest Rasmussen poll has NC as 50 - 47 McCain +3. But the Civitas poll is 45 - 45. NC is
more here