Blowing up your electoral map

Obama spends Independence Day in Montana. McCain opens offices in California.

In the last two, maybe four, presidential cycles, the electoral map has gone this way - a patch of automatic Democratic pickups on the east and west coasts with some penetration around the Great Lakes, Republication domination in the Deep South, Great Plains and Mountain states, then a handful of Midwestern contests to determine who hits the magic figure of 270.

Not this time. Obama beat Clinton by targeting the caucus states and places like Idaho, Maine and Montana with minimal electoral votes. But he made the math - win big in the small states and keep it close in the big ones. McCain performed better outside his party's bastions, picking up California and states which don't usually go Republican in November.

I don't expect Obama to overcome the 20-margin of Bush victory and take Montana's 3 electoral votes, nor will McCain take home the biggest prize of all in California.

But the demographics have change, putting Colorado and New Mexico in the toss-up column,
the Rust Belt states and my Ohio home teetering in the balance more than ever, your map will be a little more colorful. We can discount their home states, which might fall into play under different opponents. With Bob Barr as the Libertarian nominee, an Obama pick of former Sen. Sam Nunn, a foreign policy whiz, for VP would put the conservative Peach State in play.

So blow up the map. The "what ifs" make politics fun, not the mindless attack ads and wedge issues upon which no candidate ever really acts. We care more about vice president when we cannot see who might get the nod. Everyone thought George W. might pick a dynamic young Republican; the air left his sails when he went with a dictatorial retread. Edwards was the easy pick for Kerry, but it came from a mile away. There's genuine surprise this time - unless McCain goes with the mean-spirited charlatan who dogged him during the primaries.

I want to see a new balance of power on the electoral map, and with these two leading their parties, I might get more than the usual coastal blues and the red blob at the heart of the continent.