I apologize, as this is not really a diary ... but I wanted to share with as many people as possible as I believe this is extremely important.

The website below was created by state election officials to help eligible voters figure out how and where to go vote.  The site has links to voting registration information in various states, and for many states you can even type in your name, zip code and DOB and find out if you are indeed registered to vote in that state:

Insidious Real Goal of Reporting on Supposed Obama "Flip-Flop" on Iraq

All the chatter over the last 24 hours on cable news has been about Obama's supposed "flip-flopping" on the Iraq War.  Besides the fact that these "allegations" are utterly baseless, the right-wing-inspired blathering has distracted us from a very substantive discussion of policy which Obama offered in Fargo.

On Fox News Sunday this morning McCain camp surrogate Tom Ridge had this to say about off-shore drilling:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,3699 82,00.html

A Geographic Analysis of PA, OH and VA General Election Polling

A number of state polls have come out in recent days for Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia.  The numbers overall look good for Barack Obama, with him leading John McCain in Pennsylvania in all four polls released in May; Obama leading outside the margin of error in one poll in Ohio while being within the margin in two others; and a very competitive race in Virginia as well, with one poll there showing Obama up by seven points (links to polls used are provided at bottom of this diary).  What I wanted to do in this diary is to look at the regional breakdown in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia to examine Obama's geographic areas of strength and weakness.  

McCain Criticized Bill Clinton When Clinton Attacked Osama Bin Laden; while Democrats and many Republicans praised Clinton, McCain said Clinton was ignoring Iraq !

For all of John McCain's tough-talk on national security, it looks like the man was as clueless ten years ago as he is now.  I found this news article from August 21, 1998, the day after Bill Clinton ordered U.S. strikes against Osama bin Laden:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/pol itics/special/clinton/stories/react08219 8.htm

The Pennsylvania primary results are reinforcing a belief, among many, that because Hillary was the choice of more moderate/ conservative, religious (and more "gun-friendly") white voters in the state, Obama will have a hard time appealing to this demographic in the Fall.  As with much of conventional wisdom these days, this belief is simply not supported by any solid evidence.  

In a diary from last night, Jerome Armstrong posted a set of polls which purported to show how badly Obama is supposedly doing in selected states:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/3/26/2128 52/240

But looking at all the recent state polls shows a far different picture.  In this diary, I want to discuss all the latest polling for swing states, and do so from the perspective of how the Rev. Wright controversy may be affecting these polls.

Measuring Size of Obama's (Relative) Coattails on Congressional Races

This is a long diary to read so I will tell you upfront what my conclusion is after examining the recent SurveyUSA 50-state polling:  Yes, Barack Obama may indeed have huge coattails for Senate and Congressional races in the fall.  Now, to the long explanation --

The recent SurveyUSA polling indicated a relatively even match between Obama and Clinton re. who would have the most electoral votes when facing McCain.  Obama's total came to 280 EV, while Hillary's was 276 EV - a seemingly even match:

http://www.surveyusa.com/ECV_50-State_re sults_030608_vs_Obama.html
http://www.surveyusa.com/ECV_50-State_re sults_030608_vs_Clinton.html