Update to Electoral College: 10/20/08

The landslide continues.



Changes.

Missouri has swung from dead-even to barely Democratic. North Dakota swung from barely Democratic to dead-even, a net gain of +8 for Obama. West Virginia swung back to the Republicans, but North Carolina swung to the Democrats; a net gain of +10 for Obama.

All else remains the same.

Swing states.

Down to 12 states with less than 10 points between the candidates. 9 close swing states (less than 5 points): Florida, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio are all slightly for Obama; Indiana, Montana and West Virginia slightly for McCain.

Interesting highlights.

Still have 29 states for Obama and 21 for McCain.

So far no majour October surprise. The closest is that Colin Powell has just come out for Obama. This was actually a surprise for me, and pretty unexpected. McCain says that's nice, but he's got four other Secretaries of State that have endorsed him, plus over 200 generals and whatnot. And pretty expected, right-wing nut jobs like Rush Limbaugh have said it's because he's black.

With a nice comeback Powell said, if it were because he was black, he could have endorsed him months ago. He said the tipping point was the way each of the candidates handled the economic crisis; Obama was cool, calm and steady, and McCain has come across as erratic and not knowing what to do.

Another important note: Powell had given McCain's campaign the maximum amount for contributions, $2300, months ago. He also said he doesn't care for the amount of negativity the campaign has turned to for help in the polls, and that also he's concerned about the increasingly rightward tilt of the modern Republican Party.