Meet Virginia

Paul Hackett writes today on Daily Kos that Obama is losing Ohio, in a most general sense due to silent racism. Whether this is true or not, recent polling does suggest a 2004-like tight race in the State. A State not known for efficient democracy.

Ohio is such a mess for Democrats, in no small part thanks to the ridiculously bruising primary there (and to the extremely non-progressive Governor Strickland, a grumpy, staunch Clinton supporter)... it makes me wonder whether Obama should focus all his efforts instead on Virgina.

The ground game in Virginia is obviously more familiar to Team Obama (the media truly under-reported the significance of Obama's huge primary win there last February--Obama garnered a whopping 64% to Clinton's 35%) and recent governing success under Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, in addition to shifting population dynamics in the north of the State, suggest a true, genuine opportunity for Democrats.

I've been reading a great new book by Thomas Frank, The Wrecking Crew, which exposes the State of Virgina as a deeply conflicted, demographically changing State that has witnessed the extreme incompetence of new-style GOP governance (i.e., unaccountable privatization) up close at every local level.

So, it makes me wonder if the land of Macaca could become the locus of the fight in 2008. If Obama can hang onto his leads in Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Mexico (or grab Nevada), all he needs to pass 270 is Virgina. A tall order, sure, but at least a change from the disgusting electoral shams of Ohio and Florida.

I'm going to pay less attention to Ohio polls and more attention to Virginia ones. The Commonwealth might pull through for real Change.