I don't how many of you know about Strategic Vision, but it is a GOP pollster that is notorious for releasing polls that show the result more favorable to the GOP than other public polling. However, even SV is now showing what is becoming obvious, as today we get this: Obama 54, McCain 40. That PA is not a swing state and actually is on track to post an Obama win that will be larger than in a number of traditional blue states. My original home state will likely post a higher Obama margin on election day than my adopted "blue" state of Washington.
I always thought people who imagined PA to be like another version of OH or MI were simply wrong. I've lived in both PA and OH and I can tell you that PA is much more liberal. About 40% of the state lives in the PHila. metropolitan area, which is basically a smaller version of the New York metropolitan area. Another 20% lives in Pittsburgh metro., which is like the Cleveland metro area (the most liberal part of Ohio). There are also a series of heavily unionized towns like Scranton/Wilkes-Barre which tend to be quite Catholic (more favorable to Dems). The evangelical white Christian presence in the state is small, certainly compared to Ohio.
"Pennsyltucky" that everyone gets so concerned about is a relatively very small part of the state, that is aging and losing population. The only part of the state actually growing is metro Philly, which is easily the most liberal part of the state.
Thus I always felt comfortable PA would stay Dem. Basically no public polls have shown McCain in the lead here. I honestly don't know what McCain is doing campaigning here. I think he'd have a better shot in MI, and public polling tends to bear this out. Its pretty clear that Obama leads PA by over 10 points right now.