Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 26 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole sixpack! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Today, put on your cheesehead hat, open a can of Milwaukee’s Best and prepare to visit some very friendly territory for Democrats.  Wisconsin, THIS IS YOUR 50-State Diary!!!

From the Great State of OREGON (home of the Other Portland):

Is this Bill in Portland Maine that I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee...

But wait! NO! It’s not Bill in Portland! It’s Naismith's Very Special 50-State Diary, #25 in a series between now and the election, celebrating the halfway point and drawing attention to itself by looking at the GREAT STATE OF MAINE! State, Federal, Innies, Outies and the whole dang clambake!

Focus on Maine starts in There’s Moreville...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is Number 24 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures—the whole baked potato bar! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Every state means looking at the red as well as the blue, and the small as well as the large.  We’ve already suffered through Utah and Wyoming; today, let’s complete the red rockies trifecta and look at Friggin’ IDAHO!

More of this, please!

Dr. Dean just showed 'em how it's done in an interview less than an hour ago with MSNBC reporter extraordinaire David Shuster. It's part of the media kickoff to the DNC's national Voter Registration tour that BarbinMD wrote about yesterday.

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 23 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole ear of corn. Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

This time, we look at NEBRASKA!

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 22 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole Colonel’s Big Bucket! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Today, put on your favorite bluegrass album, pull up a chair on the back porch, pour yourself a mint julep and prepare to discuss KENTUCKY!

First of all, I will say that I love Barack Obama's idea to accept the nomination in front of 75K+ people in the Denver stadium.  It just puts another historic notch into this election's belt.  

Despite the naysayers and the networks threatening to curtail coverage of the Democratic convention because of increased costs of covering a stadium instead of a convention center...in the end, I do not think they will be able to miss the events (for either party) as this is an historic election and the people will want to see these events.

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 21 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole enchilada! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Today, we will explore a wonderful, wonderful state with perhaps the best election prospects of them all—NEW MEXICO!!  

InsiderAdvantage has released another poll that should scare the pants off McCain--yet another statistical dead heat, if it's true.

This poll shows McCain with only 46 percent of the vote to Obama's 44 percent--well within the 4.3 percent margin of error.  Moreover, it shows that 51 percent of voters are willing to take another look at Obama if he picks Sam Nunn as a running mate.

I'm kind of skeptical about this poll--there aren't any internals, and it doesn't show how many McCain voters would be willing to hop the fence if Nunn were on the ticket.  Still, if this is legitimate, it's yet another item in a laundry list of bad news for McCain here in the South--and confirms why to this point, I have Georgia as a state McCain will likely have to break a sweat in order to win (though another poll like this and I might move Georgia to the "tossup" column).  Plus, as a North Carolinian, I want him to blow a ton of money on Atlanta TV--after all, every penny he spends in Atlanta is a penny he can't spend in Charlotte or the Triangle.

Well, I figured now's as good a time as any to do an updated electoral college outlook.  In my last update, I figured that Barack Obama can count on at least 257 electoral votes to 151 for John McCain.  How much things can change in a matter of weeks.  How bad is it for McCain?  By my rather unscientific analysis, the best he can hope for is a bare majority of electoral votes.

HOLY CRAP. The Cook Political Report House Honcho David Wasserman just released his latest House ratings, and he has opened the blue floodgates on 30 House districts. And some of them are HUGE news.

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 20 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole Independence Hall.  Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

This time, we look at PENNSYLVANIA.

In the past few weeks, we've seen the delightful sight of Obama being competitive in states no Democrat should even be thinking about ... Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska and now Mississippi.  It raises the obvious question--how close does it have to be in normally crimson-red states to know McCain's been capsized by an Obama tsunami?

A few weeks ago, I did some admittedly unscientific analysis and concluded that while Obama has 171 electoral votes in the bag, McCain's got only 85.  Which means there's a whole lot of normally red territory that McCain's going to have to work harder to defend than normal--Kansas, Nebraska, Georgia, Indiana, Montana and even Arizona.  Granted, many of these states will go for McCain except if Obama manages to rack up 380 votes or more.  While my best-case scenario presently has Obama winning by "only" 369-169, here's my rough guess as to how close it has to be in some red states for there to be a complete wipeout.  

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is Number 19 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures—the whole Grand Teton range! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Every state means looking at the red as well as the blue, and the small as well as the large.  Dick "You know my name" Cheney’s home state of Wyoming has long been a nasty thorn in the side of the Democratic Party and the 50-state strategy.  Let’s see how we’re doing, and look for a few chinks in their armor.  The pundits say Wyoming will be irrevocably Republican forever.  The pundits are not always right.

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 18 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole Brunswick Stew.  Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Virginia is arguably the best Democratic success story in the South since the years started beginning with a 2.  We won two elections for Governor; elected Jim Webb to the US Senate (Virginia’s first Democratic Senator since Chuck Robb); and reclaimed the State Senate for Team Democrat in spite of a Republican gerrymander.  And let’s hear it for Old Dominion!!!

Hillary Clinton's campaign hung on to the end hoping that somehow, the superdelegates would recognize that she was stronger in the key "swing states" like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.  But that was a truism.  It was a battle between the state politicians in those states vs. those in the other states.  It was simply Howard Dean's "50 state strategy" being fought by the relatively few Democrats that it stood to harm.

Proof positive of the fact there's something close to a Democratic lock in the Electoral College ... by my analysis, Obama starts out with a sizeable electoral vote lead, even more than the media's reporting.  How's that?  More below the fold.

Isn't a 50-state strategy naive?