It's worth noting African Americans made up 15% of voters in the Virginia crosstabs.  This is lower than usual as, in 2004, they were 22% of Virginia voters.   Ras must be assuming there's a massive white counter-mobilization.

Here is where the incredible Obama fundraising figures posted in June will have a direct, overwhelming impact.

Think back to John Kerry in 2004:  His campaign secured the Nomination on Super Tuesday March 3, 2004, when he had just begun to make the payments on the $6M mortgage he secured on his home in Boston to finance the last stages of his campaign.

The Democratic Campaign for President was essentially penniless that day.  The GOP was flush with cash, having had Bush's incomparable fundraising prowess put to work raising re-election money since the day he and Dick Cheney entered the White House.

If memory serves, Bush STARTED 2004 with over $240M, plus the money from the RNC, plus untold millions available from GOP 501c(3) and c(4)'s like the NRA.  The GOP spent nearly 1.2 BILLION dollars in the 2004 Election.  

It allowed the GOP to "define" John Kerry in every swing-state media market for months, until Kerry (almost) achieved fundraising parity with blockbuster June and July efforts with the direct help of Howard Dean's new genie in a bottle, small-donor Internet campaigning.

This campaign cycle, the shoe is on the other foot.  McCain and the RNC have to chase after Obama's copious media buys, and must spend precious money hand over fist in unlikely places just to try and stay in the fight.

Obama meanwhile keeps opening new fronts in the war on McSame, and these figures in these (formerly) secure GOP states just reflect the fact that we have them on the run.

I trust the Obama campaign will keep using its killer instinct, and will not let McBush off the floor.  Let's keep pounding his and the GOP's head into the cement until November 10, and see just how far we can dominate and extend our advantage.

I think it's time to bust open the GOP, and capitalize on this unique opportunity to set up a strong Progressive America for this generation, the generation after us, and the generation after that.

They had their chance.  They held all the advantages with Rove and DeLay and Santorum and Frist and Gingrich, and took their best shot at taking us out for good.  

Somehow, we managed to break their hold, we're up off the floor, and now, baby, it's our turn.

Stuff like this can only help....

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/20/sche unemann-payne/

With the 20 regional field offices Obama just opened across Virginia combined with the resources put forth by the Mark Warner campaign, we have a great shot of taking the state. Governor Kaine and Webb will also be out in full force campaigning hard for Obama.

This is particularly important IMHO

a thought-provoking set of data considering it is McCain who has been on the political scene for the past three decades, and the past several years in particular, and Obama who broke out nationally just within the last few years.

So, am I reading this right?  Virginia and North Carolina will make up for Barry losing Ohio and Florida?  Is this your conjecture?  Are you serious?

Not to mention:

And just this week, Rhodes Cook, who writes for Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, published an invaluable study that is the best glimpse yet of who is likely to be voting this fall. Cook did a deep dive in the new registrations from the 29 states that collect that data by party and found, in effect, that about 1,000,000 people have left the Republican party since 2004, while another 700,000 voters have become Democrats.

[...]

Iowa, the most important swing state in the upper Midwest, has seen Democratic registration grow by about 68,000 since 2004 while Republican registration has dropped by nearly 27,000. (Bush won the state by about 10,000 votes in 2004.) In New Hampshire, which Kerry won in 2004 by about 9,000 votes, Democratic registration is up by 35,000 while new Republican voters number less than 2000. In Nevada, which Bush won by 21,000, Democrats have enrolled 16,000 new voters. Republicans have lost more than 43,000. Does it mean Obama will win these states? No. Does it make it easier to capture them? Certainly.

[...]

All this gives rise to at least one more question: If most of those million fleeing Republicans have become tenuous independents, then who are those 700,000 new Democrats? That is what the DNC is trying to find out. "They are young, they are female, they are new to the process," said a consultant who is trying to dissect this new group for the party elders. "Most of them have come out of nowhere."

Michael Duffy - The Week in Politics Time 20 Jul 08

Out of nowhere?  I'm not so sure.  Read the whole article, it is very interesting.

I read an article on Realclearpolitics.com discussing The "Inverted C" in the state of Ohio.  It talks about how Democrats have recently won the Buckeye state by winning big in the counties neighboring Pennsylvania and the Appalachian counties near Kentucky.  What Obama must do to win Ohio is have record turnout numbers in Columbus and Cleveland.  If he does this and holds his own in Akron and Toledo, he will be the next president of these United States of America! Hola