I hope he’s toast. Or more babies will perish.
I live in Cincinnati and have followed the race in Ohio very closely. I am encouraged by this Rasmussen poll, although they’ve had McCain in the lead for months and by a larger margin than most other polls. I think it is going to be very close, but McCain is in good shape because of his opponent. I’ve studied the returns in the Democratic primary and Obama is going to be even less popular in rural Ohio than Kerry was in 2004. Hillary won by almost 9% and a 200,000 vote margin. She won 83 out of 88 counties, losing only in the bigger cities with large black populations. In counties with less than 50,000 voters, she won with more than 60% of the vote. Obama received over 1,000,000 votes, but half of those came in the five counties he won. He is going to lose Clinton voters in droves in SE Ohio and NW Ohio. That alone gives McCain a good shot at winning.
McCain has focused more on turnout, which is smart. Last week, I received a direct mailing from the McCain campaign with absentee ballot requests. McCain also left a message on my answering machine telling me that they were on the way. In terms of advertising, McCain has stepped up his presence significantly. Yard signs have started popping up and he’s running probably twice as many TV ads as Obama, especially considering the RNC ads. McCain won’t be able to match the well-oiled Bush campaign in Ohio, but he’s running a strong campaign here and he’s making a big investment.