Current Event Week #4

Barack Obama and John McCain are in an all out war over Virginia’s 13 electoral votes. Traditionally, Virginia has voted republican, however this election is bringing about several surprises, one being Virginia’s status as a crucial Swing State. The state’s population has voted 46% for John McCain and 49 % for Barack Obama. McCain and Obama have strengths in different plans for running the country. McCain has an advantage over Obama in issues dealing with the War on Terror. Luckily for McCain, Virginia is supposedly home to approximately 800,000 war veterans and more than a dozen military bases. Typically, foreign affairs play a key role in winning Virginia, and this could work in McCain’s favor for obvious reasons. Likewise, Obama has a 10 point advantage over McCain in fixing up our economy. McCain and Obama need to try and sway the 19 percent of Virginia voters who aren’t secure with their position on who they would vote for. However, I believe Obama may have the advantage in this, as in the article it says that most Americans think that the economy is the biggest issue that needs to be handled before everything else. McCain needs to get his act together and come up with a secure plan on how to deal with the problems of the economy in order to win this state. If he fails to convince voters that he has a plan that will definitely work to fix the economy, Barack Obama will win Virginia for sure. However, if Barack Obama wins Virginia, he would be the first Democrat to win the state since 1964. I think the odds are in favor of McCain for winning the state as long as he squares away a good economic