Obama/the Obama campaign had a great insight re. competitive states

[thesubstanceofdreams]

In the beginning of the campaign (after the primaries), Obama decided to target IN, NC, VA, MT, ND, and GA. All of these were red red states that Bush had carried comfortably and even Clinton failed to win most of them. The campaign was mocked by many for this decision. Eventually, they had to concentrate resources and mostly pulled out of MT, ND and GA.

Fast forward to today. These are indeed EXACTLY the red states on which Obama is doing better. Obama is AHEAD or in the worst case tied in all the states he's competing intensely. Even in MT, ND and GA, several recent polls show him within MoE (some of them have him ahead).

On the other hand, states like TN and SC remain out of reach. At the time of the primaries, there was no clear reason for an average informed spectator to believe that TN, say, would be a harder pickup than ND, GA or even NC. So it was a wise decision not to invest particularly much in these states.

The vision of Obama and his campaign has been outstanding and breathtaking. Even though the economy and Palin have certainly helped him, he has a huge credit for being in the great position he is.