State By State

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It’s early; it’s just a snapshot; some of the numbers are within the margin of error and all that. But these 50 state polls put out by SurveyUSA are fascinating. The topline is that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton beat John McCain by the slimmest of margins (you can see Eric Kleefeld’s write up here). But they do it in starkly different ways. Barack Obama manages to beat John McCain while losing Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida — which I would scarcely have thought possibly (i.e., that a Dem could win while losing those states). Meanwhile Hillary wins in a more conventional way — judged by the standards of the last twenty years. Most of the blue states are blue and red states red. But where she loses the Pacific Northwest she takes Florida.

Supporters of Clinton and Obama can both take from this that they’re backing solid general election candidates but it does show they’re very different — at least at this moment — in terms of the package of states they’d put together. The maps here are well worth taking a look at.

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