The Election: What to look for.

The East Coast is where the action will be. Indiana, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina will be looked at closely along with Florida and Missouri. This is where the battlegrounds are for the fight to the White House. If Indiana does not turn red immediately as it has in the previous elections, it will be a long night for Sen McCain. Virginia and North Carolina are others to look at, and if Sen Obama takes Virginia, Sen McCain must win Pennsylvania to counter the loss. Ohio will also be looked at as it is a close race there.
If Sen Obama wins both Virginia and Pennsylvania, Sen McCain is in trouble. If Sen McCain wins Pennsylvania or another blue state, then Sen Obama is in trouble. I will be reporting on this thread tomorrow adding my input as the election is called.

Kentucky was called for Sen McCain and Vermont for Sen Obama. No surprises there.
Indiana is too close to call, which may make the McCain campaign a little nervous.
Sen McCain is leading in Virginia 55% to 44% with a small amount of precincts in. The rural areas get counted first, so this is good for Sen McCain right now.

[edit on 11/4/2008 by kidflash2008]

When the polls closed for Indiana and it was not called for Sen McCain, I knew this was going to be a bad night for his campaign. Indiana is usually the first state go go red on election night.

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan were reporting higher numbers for Sen Obama then they did for Sen Kerry. In 2004, Kerry won Wisconsin and Michigan by only a few thousand votes. Sen Obama won them by high margins.

Some of the states like Georgia and North Dakota were called for Sen McCain, and for a while no red state turned blue. It was looking like a long night.

When Ohio was called for Sen Obama, it was basically over for Sen McCain. There might have been a tinge of hope for Colorado, Iowa, and Nevada to offshoot that loss, but as we saw, it was not meant to be.

I was surprised by the margins of Sen Obama's wins. I was expecting much tighter races in the West. Virginia did not surprise me, as Sen McCain did defend it during the last few months.

I was also surprised by the size of Sen Obama's victory in Pennsylvania. This was the state Sen McCain had hoped to turn red. His sizable victory in the very independent New Hampshire stunned also. NH is usually won be a few thousand votes.

Overall, a good election. I watched many sources (channel flipped), and noticed the networks were conservative in making their calls. PBS made the calls much earlier than the 24 hour networks.