ran 1.9 miles
From an article by John Fund from the Wall Street Journal, “The decision by Democrats to hold their presidential nominating convention in Charlotte, N.C., is an indication that the party thinks it can’t afford to give up gains made in the South when Barack Obama was elected in 2008.”
The choice to set up camp in North Carolina is a strategic effort to concentrate as much campaigning and attention to surrounding states, which were so instrumental in electing Barack Obama two years ago. Working against Obama’s potential success in 2012, the 2010 Census has shifted several electoral votes from states previously won by Obama to those previously won by John McCain. Barack Obama is not hopeful to win any of the states carried by McCain in 2008. Based on the decision to not host the convention in Missouri, a state Obama lost by less than 4,000 votes in 2008, southern states are obviously more important in the Democratic approach to making Barack Obama a two-term president.
“Should a Republican presidential nominee hold every McCain state and add Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia—all states that voted Republican in every year between 1976 and 2008—that candidate would command 218 electoral votes. If he were able to win Florida and Ohio, which routinely voted Republican during that same period, he would have 265 electoral votes—just five short of an Electoral College majority. Any of several states—Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico—could then make Mr. Obama a one-term president.”
1,662.8 miles to go.
