WSJ: McCain Doesn't Look Competitive in Pennsylvania

[JPZenger]

We have to be very careful to not be complacent or to let up on get our the vote. However, this is more good news. It is a piece by a member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board entitled "McCain Doesn't Look Competitive in Pennsylvania". It is about Bucks County, a traditionally Republican stronghold with 625,000 residents in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122480892803665099.html

"Now try to find a John McCain outpost in Bucks County. Armed with an address, you'd get an unmarked, low, stand-alone office building on a four-lane state highway 15 minutes' drive from here. On the front door a small sign directs visitors to the McCain campaign around the corner and down the stairs to the basement. Two volunteers man phones, McCain posters or signs aren't readily available. Three paid staffers direct the Republican's campaign from a single office in this critical battleground.

Having opted out of public financing, Mr. Obama's money edge (a record $618 million raised so far) enables him to run a better-staffed and more vibrant ground organization as well as dominate the air waves. At rallies McCain surrogates insist that "the state isn't for sale." But the Democrats have registered over 200,000 voters since June 1. Their lead over Republicans statewide is 1.2 million, double the gap in 2004. This election "saw the biggest switch ever" from one party to another in Pennsylvania, says pollster Michael Young.

Whether it is Bucks County or the national Republican Party that's changed, the GOP's problems here predated John McCain and will outlive him. Pollster Terry Madonna and Mr. Young think that 2008 may be "Pennsylvania's last hurrah" as a swing state. If it turns solid blue, "such a shift would have enormous political implications, radically altering future Electoral College maps, thereby making it ever more difficult for the GOP to win national elections," they wrote this month."

Mr. Kaminski is a member of the Journal's editorial board.

[bronxiteforever]

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