Obama looks to rewrite nation's electoral map

[BigBearJohn]

Democrat Barack Obama enters the final lap of his presidential bid with the chance to remake the nation's electoral map, with polls showing him leading in at least a half-dozen states that President Bush carried in 2004.

Republican John McCain hopes a last-minute shift by undecided voters could help him capture toss-up states like Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina and reverse Obama's momentum in Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Iowa.

With the exception of Pennsylvania, a traditionally Democratic state where McCain is making a last-ditch stand, the entire campaign is being fought on GOP turf. In a sign of the uphill climb McCain faces, even reliably red states such as Montana, Georgia and North Dakota are up for grabs.

Obama heads into election day in an enviable position: Democrats are flocking to the polls in huge numbers in early voting, especially African Americans. He has extensive get-out-the-vote operations even in GOP strongholds like Indiana. He has enough surplus cash that he's running last-minute TV ads in Arizona, McCain's home state, which would only turn blue in a shocking upset.

The McCain campaign still sees a path to victory, but it's a narrow one. He must hang on to both of the big swing states Bush won narrowly in 2000 and 2004 - Ohio and Florida - while avoiding losses in GOP bastions like Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina. He is playing for an upset victory in Pennsylvania - which backed Democrat John Kerry in 2004 and has 21 electoral votes - in case Obama wins one or more red states that are now leaning his way.

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SOURCE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/02/MNOL13RTV0.DTL&type=printable