Ohio & Florida: Is the Fix In?

It’s a real dogfight over the two key states! Or, is it?
by Charlie Leck

Here’s the way it looks. Florida and Ohio appear to be the two most crucial states for John McCain to get figured out. His people might throw in Missouri and Virginia. It’s a virtual tie right now in Florida and Obama’s lead is slim in Ohio (though CNN’s poll yesterday gives Obama a 4 point lead).

Yet, John McCain is spending big time and big money in Pennsylvania. It doesn’t seem to make sense unless his campaign organization knows something that the polling organizations don’t. Sometimes these organizations have their own in-house polling experts and they are often very good. The national polling organizations have Obama winning PA by anywhere from 8 to 15 points. What’s up? The political pundits all wonder why McCain would be wasting such time in PA.

What if this is what John McCain’s organization knows that we don’t know?
What if John McCain knows he is going to win in Ohio, Florida and Missouri because the fix is in. This is a terrible conspiratorial suspicion that a lot of democrats have, but it is strange how McCain is not worrying about those three states. There are many of us who feel the election was stolen from John Kerry in Ohio in 2004. We all know about Florida in 2000.

What about this year? Is it possible the power brokers in the Republican Party already know who the winner is in these important states? If so, that leaves time for McCain to go to states like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire where he is losing big. There are major stories floating around about thousands and thousands of registered voters being purged from the registration lists – and mostly in low income and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. [Read this NY Times story about it!]