I have been telling you (from the ground) that Indiana is in play... confirmation

Indy star article up tonight: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081023/NEWS0502/81023044

Most recent polls put McCain up by 10 percentage points in Indiana.

Contributing (big) factor:

The LONG primary put Obama on the air (and Clinton) for a month. The primary wasn't decided and for the first time in my political memory the primary was still in play coming into our May primary. There was a massive (dem) ground organization for both camps and both were here (and their surrogates) solid for a month.

After the primary was over, the Obama campaign kept (on air) being present. The effect was huge.

Until the last week there was little GOP on air campaigning on the major networks. To this day there are about 10 Obama ads to any McCain ad.

Until the last two weeks I have not seen a single McCain bumper sticker or sign. Not one in Indianapolis, not one on the commute to Bloomington (red area between two of the three big blue oases in Indiana), and not one in Bloomington (blue college town - with some very high profile GOPers who have always liked to display there "dissent" support).

There has been a minuscule uptick (from zero) energy for the McCain campaign here. Minuscule.

So about two and a half weeks ago Obama was Indianapolis and 21K came. Palin came last friday and 24K showed up. And today, with little notice, Obama came to Indy again - and 35,000 came.

So the new polls don't surprise me. I have been telling you for more than a month that we (Indiana) are in big play.

Why is this a big deal? If a state that has only gone blue at the top of the ticket one time in about the last seventy years (give or take) is about to go blue (and possibly by a big margin) - there is no way to view that stunning event outside of a major landslide across the country.

Don't get complacent. But - this is a major harbinger and it is not a good one for the GOP.

Indeed, in 2006 when early election results were in - and when THREE congressional races went from red to blue early in the evening - these were cited again and again that evening as a harbinger that not only would the House of Representatives would flip to Dem control, but that the majority would be something less than razor thin. And those making the prognostications were right.

The McCain campaign has breathed its last easy breaths. Indiana going big blue would put the GOP into a major asthma attack - the severe kind that puts folks into the hospital for observation.

who are the big GOPers in Bloomington? Just wondering if you are talking about the same ones I know of.

like former GOp head Franklin Andrews ... but about some property owners in Hoosier Acres (along 3rd street north of the 'mall') and other high profile areas who regularly post a ton of GOP signs and proudly wear GOP stickers on the cars. Not so much individuals (I don't know who) but specific areas where signage is predictable. Until the last week - local Gop signage was up - but no national (or even statewide) signage was up.

not to early to call at 7pm. I'm going to start the celebration. We win Indiana we've won all the battleground states.

I would never have predicted this. In my adult voting life, even in my most hopeful moments (goes back to Reagan) I have NEVER predicted/hoped-projected a possible Indiana win at the President level. The ground game here, is unprecedented.

I'm kind of beside myself as well right now at the prospect of a blue Indiana.

(pockets that vote blue) seeing the blue spread big - is astonishing, and very encouraging.

I was like there is a Berkley in the middle of Indiana?

Birch Bayh is fine liberal so there is some tradition...too bad the son's apple rolled down a hill

I lived in the Bay Area - and when I came back to B-ton I found the liberalism very mild (comparatively). After being back in Indiana for a number of years it does seem more like Berkley (all things relative). Some grads who live elsewhere in the state use the phrase "the people's republic of bloomington." Only in relation to the rest of the state is that a truism.

After reading this and the numbers Keith reported tonight...I'm a believer.

I think is very significant.

I am listening to the local news as I type - and there is a story on the DISGUST at political calls. Guess which party is making most of the calls?

Yep - now that Indiana is in play the GOP/RNC isn't running many ads (too expensive for an assumed safe state) - it is making those ads that many Hoosiers are findng offensive and annoying.

are likely to be heavy BLUE.

It is a harbinger.

The better Obama does in Indiana, I'm hoping the more likely Jill Long Thompson will defeat the loathsome Mitch Daniels in the gubernatorial race.

I am more optimistic that we will go for Obama (never thought I would type that without tbe word "possibility" per Obama), but Long Thompson has not run a good campaign. Add the degree (large) that hoosiers split tickets in their voting, I don't think that the growing coat tails will help her. I hate typing that.

It would be sensational if the GOP vote was so demoralized over the next week and a half that it boosted a lot of down-ballot races for us.

The bluer the better.

I was so impressed by the demeanor and diversity of the crowd(35,000).

Everyone was positive and excited. Obama's speech struck all the right notes and I actually feel like Indiana is truly in play this year.

As an Obama supporter from the begining (and Dean in 2004), this another example of the wisdom of their 50 state strategy which is gonna prove so productive on Nov 4!!!

that Indiana would be in play in 2008. Part of why I think this is big national news.

Let's turn Indiana BLUE! :patriot:

Kephera would be estatic! :loveya:

Nah, can't be. I read dozens of threads whining otherwise.

I was exhausted (following on DU) by the primary battering. But Obama is very familiar here, now.

For example I have seen about 8 Obama ads (Indianapolis) tonight, and 1 McCain ad. I didn't see a McCain ad until last week. While I have been watching Obama ads since April.

for the Repukes. He said, he guarantees that won't happen this yr.