As more and more polling confirms what we've known for months, more and more ink is being spilled on the competitiveness of Indiana's presidential contest. Time Magazine offers their take on the undecided Hoosier voter, but I'll defer to the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza on why we are where we are.
When Obama passed over home-state Hoosier Sen. Evan Bayh, it was widely assumed that Indiana, which hasn't voted for a Democrat at the presidential level since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, was off the table for the Democrats. A series of new polls challenge that assumption, most notably a survey conducted by J. Ann Selzer, of Selzer & Co., that had Obama at 47 percent and McCain at 44 percent. (Political junkies will remember that Selzer, who is based in Des Moines, nailed the order of finish in the Iowa Democratic caucuses this year.) The reason for the competitiveness? Indiana's economy has been hit hard by the collapse of the manufacturing sector, and voters might think a change of the party in charge in Washington is the best way to voice their disapproval.
The aforementioned Time piece makes note of the other key piece of this puzzle that Cillizza doesn't discuss: Barack Obama is talking to Indiana voters and trying to win their support. John McCain has dropped by twice, pocketed a bunch of checks, and then disappeared until the bank account starts to run low. That matters, and the longer McCain and the GOP ignore our neck of the woods, the harder it will be for them to win over the last-second deciders who will likely enter the polling booth with a "what have you done for me lately?" attitude.
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