McCain in Virginia

McCain is trailing Obama in Virginia, but not by much. It's going to take people actually showing up to the polls to change the tide in Virginia to BLUE, and McCain is definitely feeling the pressure right now:

From the UK:

Mr Obama now enjoys a lead in national polls of between eight and ten points. But it is the state-by-state electoral map that makes clear the scale of the challenge now confronting Mr McCain. To win on November 4, a candidate needs 270 electoral college votes. If all the states that are likely wins for each candidate, or leaning towards them, are added together, Mr Obama has 264 electoral college votes to Mr McCain’s 163. That leaves the eight toss-up states – Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Florida, Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina – with a combined total of 111 electoral college votes, to decide the race.

All are states won twice by Mr Bush. Virginia has not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, yet Mr Obama has pulled into a lead of between five and ten points. Three months ago the critical battleground of Florida looked unlikely for Mr Obama. Today he has a five-point lead. Mr Bush won Indiana by 21 points in 2004. Today Mr McCain is holding on to a tiny lead. In Colorado, Mr Obama is about five points ahead.

If Mr McCain loses any of them, or indeed the hugely important battleground of Ohio, where he is slightly trailing, his presidential hopes will be over. He is more aware than anybody that no Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio.

A lot of this Virginia-crossing-over has to do with Northern Virginia, that lovely bubble leeching off of DC, being strongly democratic. There are a lot of people here that care enough about the political process to get out the vote, and McCain hanging out in Tidewater (sounds so lovely every time you say it, doesn't it?) and hitting up the rest of the state just outside the beltway shows you how he thinks he can bring Sweet Virginia back to the watering hole.

And they're still coming:

From the Richmond-Times Dispatch:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is returning to Virginia for a rally in Roanoke.

Obama’s campaign says the rally is set for 12:30 p.m. today at the Coliseum at Roanoke Civic Center. The event is free and open to the public. The campaign recommends that attendees RSVP at www.va.barackobama.com.

Tomorrow, Republican John McCain will be at the Prince William County Complex in Woodbridge at 2 p.m. That event also is free and open to the public. Tickets are available through the McCain Virginia Web site at Virginia.JohnMcCain.com.

What do you think, folks? What'll it take for McCain to win VA? Does he have a shot? Leave your ideas and thoughts in the comments!

-Katie