Michigan Seems Like A Dream To Me Now

FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver points out a new Rasmussen poll out of Michigan -- the first numbers from the Wolverine State since McCain pulled out last week -- that gives Obama a 16-point advantage in the onetime battleground. A month ago, Rasmussen had Obama up by seven in Michigan and the RealClearPolitics average had Obama up by three there. Sarah Palin and the local party apparatus have tried to soothe the state's GOP abandonment issues, but this new poll suggests that their efforts have been insufficient. As Silver observes, "voters really, really don't like it when you blow off their state." On the other hand, they seem to have gotten over the Democrats bailing on the state's rule-breaking primary...

Meanwhile, with McCain overtly out of the picture in Michigan, Obama won't need to fight as hard there either. That means he may ease up on campaign visits and downsize his ad buys to focus on states with closer contests. Grand Rapids, we hardly knew ye.

-- Evie Stone

4:07 PM ET | 10- 9-2008 | permalink

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