I think Rhode Island will be an intresting primary coming up on March 4th.
My name is Michael. I go to college up here at Johnson & Wales University. I am from Georgia and I voted in our Feb 5th primary for Obama by absentee ballot. Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union, but it will certaintly have an impact on who the nominee is. Our primary is March 4th and according to one poll the race is tighting. Clinton was ahead by a double digit lead and Obama cut that lead almost in half to a single digit 8 point lead. Rhode Island has a number of colleges and I think that will help Obama. I think Obama should focus on The southern part of Rhode Island more so than Providence. Don't get me wrong Providence is the capital and it is the biggest city in Rhode Island, But I think he will have more of a harder time winning it here than down in the southern part. However he should focus on in the College areas and on the upscale parts of providence. I think Northern Rhode Island would be harder for him. From what I know there are a lot more upscale voters in southern rhode island. He should focus his time in the newport area and around the coastal areas and Keep it close in Providence. This should enable him to win the state. I am not counting him out in Providence, because he has made inroads with working class dems, but I just don't think he will win providence by a majority, but I certaintly think he will keep it close and offset it by high margins in the suburbs and coastal/southern ri.
The colleges in the providence area are Johnson & Wales University, Brown University, Providence College and the Rhode Island school of design. Also scattered throughout Rhode Island are Roger Williams University, University of Rhode Island, Bryant University and Salve Regina University, the CCRI system, and RIC. My best estimate for the number of college students is somewhere around 50,000 students or so.
P.S. I forgot to mention that Michelle's Obama brother is a basketball coach at Brown University.