Swing States Loom Large

Forget the old swing-state conventional wisdom. Salon rounds up some experts and asks where the electoral map might flip in November:

• The eastern Rust belt (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan) is John McCain’s best hope. Ohio is traditionally weakest for Democrats, but the Michigan primary remains a problem, and aging Pennsylvanians are GOP-friendly.

• The flood plain (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa) should be more solid for Obama than it was for Kerry, but Republicans aren’t conceding it.
• The southwest (New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado) is Obama’s big pick-up opportunity. Says a strategist: “One of these candidates is going to wake up the day after and say, ‘What happened?’”
• Virginia has three immensely popular Democratic politicians, energized blacks and Hispanics, and shifting suburbs.

(More swing states stories.)