List the reasons why Va. and NC are now in play....

[liberalitch]

I'll start.... John Edwards.
Now you go

[NMDemDist2]

1. LOL geez you took my answer DRAT n/t

[liberalitch]

3. Don't worry just scream...

Hawaii or Alaska if it ever happens again

[brainshrub]

2. Outsourcing

[GreenInNC]

16. agree 100%

Ir is not just textile jobs that are being shipped overseas, it is our white collar ones as well. My wife is losing her computer programming job to India and if this was not bad enough she has to train her Indian replacement. If she does not, she loses her severance package.

[DarthDem]

4. Well

We could start and finish with your list as it stands so far (just John Edwards), but the number of job losses sustained by North Carolina under the latest BFEE-shepherded economy is remarkable, and is fueling considerable anger in nearly all areas of the state. In addition, I suspect that the state's large contingent of military and military family voters will not be quite so reflexive in voting for the Imbecile as they perhaps were last time around. The latter point certainly goes for Virginia as well.

[JI7]

5. kerry's military service and edwards

kerry was not that far behind in both states before edwards adn i think his military service had a lot to do with it, especially in virginia. with edwards it's even closer now.

[monchie]

6. Depends on what you mean by "in play."

Based on polls I'd seen, IMHO NC and VA were in play before the Edwards pick. They were weakly leaning toward Bush. Adding Edwards to the ticket just increased the likelihood of those two states going for the Dems.

[NC_Nurse]

7. I think a lot of people

are just now starting to pay attention to the election. They're figuring out what a mess the Chimp-in-Charge has gotten us into.

And of course, we've got an incredible speaker in Edwards...'bout time someone articulate took the stage. I noticed at the rally at NCSU yesterday that Kerry seems to have picked up on his style a little and is keeping it short and positive. :D

[Zynx]

8. Kerry's inroads into veterans.

I admit that is speculation, but it's worth a shot.

[Lefty Pragmatist]

9. Parade raining

I've lived in both. They aren't in play. In 8 years. Not yet.

[liberalitch]

10. Wait don't cancel that parade 'cuz as we say in Norfolk

If you don't like the weather.... wait just a second and it'll change.

[Lefty Pragmatist]

14. Hey, I'll drink to that.

My only point is that I keep seeing overblown predictions that now that Edwards is on the ticket we are somehow going to take the moderate south. Well, we might, but so what? We aren't going to win any EVs in the Confederacy by doing do, because there is an enormous plurality of HARD CORE anti-liberals in those states who are evangelized (in both senses) to vote for anything GOP that crawls, and we would thus need to sweep the entire rest of the spectrum if we would ever have a chance of winning any southern state: ultra-libs (some of whom are still wetting themselves over Nader), solid and mod libs (who we have, but who need to get off the damn couch and vote), centrists (who are the group finally "in play") and mod conservatives (who are turned off by some of the things we, in all sincerity, stand for, and who are still going to back Bush).

That last group is the one that prevents us from taking southern EVs. To do so we would have to adopt stances I doubt most of us would support (pro-life, anti-same sex marriage). In another generation there will be enough college educated people and white flight northern exiles in VA and maybe NC to turn the tide; just not yet.

Put me in the "I'll be the first to break open the mint julips if we take *any* southern state" category. I'm just being realistic.

[Zynx]

11. The polls say otherwise.

Their demographics are changing so rapidly that they are coming into play faster than anyone would have expected ten years ago.

[WI_DEM]

12. four years of Bush

Virginia has been moving to the center over a number of years. It elected a Democratic governor. Clinton nearly won it twice. North Carolina has proved that it can elect democrats as Governor and for the Senate--obviously Edwards helps here, but Kerry was closer than expected even prior to selecting Edwards. I say it is more due to four years of GW Bush and his rein of terror. The loss of jobs--especially manufacturing jobs and yes, even Iraq.

[NC_Nurse]

13. True enough...

people are moving to NC in droves it seems, at least the Triangle and Charlotte. I'm sure a lot of them come from more liberal areas.

Although, 20 years ago you would NEVER have seen a Repub bumpersticker in Chapel Hill and now there are quite a few. This used to be the great liberal bastion of NC, it's been diluted somewhat. Sigh...

[patricia92243]

15. We have Democrat Governor.

[King of New Orleans]

17. Northern Virginia

Lot's of government workers greatly irritated with the way government is run. Including alot of CIA and Pentagon staffers.

Also, N.Virginia and NC both have alot of smaller startup type companies instead of the big corporations which GeeW and the boys like to roll the contracts out to (many of those located in Texas wouldn't ya know.)