« Nader Hurting Kerry in PA | Main | Novak Says Kerry Ahead in OH & FL »
Sunday, March 21, 2004
WaPo on the Swing States
Posted by DavidNYCThe Washington Post has a broad summary article on the 18 states it thinks are in play this election. The list is the same as the one I use here, except it excludes CO, VA and LA. (Though the piece does mention that Democrats think LA is in play.) It does a pretty good job of hitting most of the major points.
The problem with stories like this is that you really can't try to assess 18 or so different states in just one newspaper-length article. For example, Balz and VandeHei say stuff like: "To offset possible Democratic inroads [in the Southwest], Republicans will be trying to pick up New Mexico, which Gore won by fewer than 400 votes."
But the closeness of the vote in NM is deeply misleading because that state is trending Democratic. It'll be a lot harder this time around for the GOP to win there, just as it will a lot harder for us to win Florida this time around, even though we "lost" it by 537 votes.
The bottom line is, there's not point in carping at the WaPo. I ought to get back to doing some more in-depth analyses - and I will, as soon as this brief is done. If I ever pen a "Letter to a Young Blogger," my first line will be, "Don't start a blog while you're in law school!" The bright side, though, is that many of the big political blogs are now focusing intently on the swing states, now that the primary season is over. So I don't think we'll lack for good swing state coverage.
(WaPo story thanks to ljm at DKos.)
Posted at 07:47 PM in General | Technorati
Comments
I'm trying to make a list of links to online forums and chat rooms in swing states and close Senate race states. That way online activists can communicate with swing state voters.
If anyone can think of a way to find them, or knows where such a list exists, please email me.
Posted by: Heckraiser at March 23, 2004 06:48 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment