Thursday, October 30, 2008

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 33

Six days before the Presidential elections in the U.S. the candidates Barack Obama and John McCain struggle for each vote in Pennsylvania. Nationally, Obama already has a lead of 16 percentage points. Even in his home state Arizona McCain must fear his leading position.
Barack Obama and John McCain are fighting in the final phase of the campaign for every vote in Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate McCain still hopes to defeat the Democrats to make his way to the Wihte House.

"I have no fear of the fight, I'm ready," said McCain on Tuesday at a rally in Hershey - the chocolate town - in Pennsylvania. If McCain cannot win in this state his chances for the presidency are almost none - because Obama is expected to win several of the states in which Republican George W. Bush had the majority four years ago.

Even in his home state Arizona, McCain must now be afraid to lose the leading position. His lead in the polls in this state has shrunk from seven to just two percentage points - in a statistical variation of three percent. Obama, however, leads in his own state of Illinois with more than 30 percentage points. Nationally, a survey of the Pew Research Center says, that 52 percent of Americans will vote for Obama and 36 percent will vote for McCain. Important for the election on 4 November are the results in the individual states.

The former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke of "the very real possibility of an Obama presidency." In Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said, Obama has "a pretty good advantage."

The Democratic candidate tries to win voters in Pennsylvania. In a suburb of Philadelphia, around 9,000 people stood in the rain and cold to hear Obama. The senator came in jeans and rain jacket on.
Then he spoke in Virginia, where a hall in Harrisonburg was too small for a total of 20,000 followers to act. The 47-year-old Obama described the election with a view to the age of his 72-year counterparts as a "clear choice between the past and the future."

McCain again reiterated that he is the candidate with greater experience: "I will not be a President, who has to be tested," said McCain, recalling his captivity during the Vietnam war and added: "I voted for you guys, fought in places where it was about more than the return in the Senate. "

Three quarters of their campaign budget is spent on advertisments in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Traditionally, there three states are "Battleground States".
The candidate, who will win in two of this three states, will be the next American President, most likely.
On Wednesday Barack Obama held a rally together with Bill Clinton in Kissimmee, Florida.

In Florida, more people use the possibility of early voting than four years ago. Because of the heavy traffic at the polling Governor Charlie Crist prolonged on Tuesday a possibility of voting from eight to twelve hours a day. The "Early Voting" in Florida ends on Sunday. Even in Georgia voters tolerate up to eight hours waiting time in the purchase order to cast their vote earlier.

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