It's Official.

Today, in the Washington Post's Editorial section, the main article read that the Post would officially be endorsing Barack Obama for President. What a surprise! Not. After many articles on their main pages as well as many more on the back pages and online of lashing out at McCain's ideals, strategies, and campaign in general, is anyone really surprised at this liberal leaning newspaper going for Obama? I'm sure not. I am surprised that it took this long for them to claim that it is who they would support when they were obviously not going to endorse McCain. Either way, it has come out. The main stories on the Post's front page today were about the Debate on Wednesday and how it effected both of the candidates' followings. Obama was steadily cool throughout the debate, and McCain has been highlighted as being disrespectful, anxious, and tense. Virginia is now looking like it's a battleground state, which is something that hasn't happened for a very long time and the Posts' blame is put on McCain's performances in the three debates as well as his Vice Presidential pick, which is questioned more and more each day by independents and undecided voters. With Ohio and Virginia, two major states in this election now, being in the forefront of the election coverage now, in the next three weeks are vital to both candidates' success and faliures.

Ohio for Obama

It's come to the attention of just about every national news station that Ohio has recently been showing a lean toward Obama. The Washington Post mentions that as of right now, Obama's support seems to be up to 51% whereas McCain's is at 45% of the state. If it were any other state, it shouldn't be such a big deal, however, it has been a fact throughout history that a Republican nominee has never won a presidential election without winning Ohio. This means that if Obama takes Ohio, it is very likely that he will also take the presidency. According to the Washington Post, McCain is having a hard time claiming Ohio because it is such a "blue-collar" state instead of high incomes. McCain's specialties are Iraq, foreign policy, and any kind of warfare. However, in such hard economic times with Obama being viewed as more of an economic leader, Ohio, with a middle class working state base, finds that more important in a candidate at the moment. The support for Obama comes at an extremely opportune time since early voting begins this week in Ohio. The article highlights the amount of text messages and emails sent to voters this year as well as the amazingly high turnout of new voters registering can also be good for Obama. McCain also doesn't do as well with women, which is why he was counting on Gov. Palin to bring some of that support base toward his side, but in Ohio it seems to not be working as well. The biggest factor though in this part of the country is definitely the economy, with Ohio being one of the states that has been hit the hardest by economic issues and job losses. The Ohio voters are just looking for a way out, and they don't, apparently, see that in McCain.