NYT on McCain losing Arizona: "Arizona is changing."

[jazzjunkysue]

File this under: "It's not you. It's me."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/

With Arizona changing, McCain focuses on home
NYT: Presidential candidates are usually able to count on their home state, but the Republican's chances in Arizona are somewhat less assured.


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Republican presidential contender's home a 'battleground' state


But a variety of factors have made Mr. McCain’s chances in Arizona less assured than they ordinarily would seem, which his campaign has acknowledged.

The number of independent voters in Arizona has risen 12 percent since 2004, and those voters have helped send a Democrat to the governor’s mansion and given the party four of the state’s eight Congressional seats — including two in 2006, one in a historically Republican district.

At the same time, Arizona Democrats, like many of their counterparts around the country, have outpaced Republicans in voter registration, adding almost 20,000 voters to the rolls since March, compared with the Republican majority’s 8,600 new voters. The second-term Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano , remains wildly popular.

Added to list of 'battleground states'
Last month, the McCain campaign startlingly added Arizona to its list of 24 “battleground states,” a fact that state Democrats have clung to like sprinkles on a soft-serve ice cream cone.

“John McCain has striking vulnerabilities here,” said Emily DeRose, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party . “We are going to take him to the mat. We are not giving him a pass in Arizona.”

What is more, the state’s Republican Party is more or less in disarray, split between its moderate and staunchly conservative factions. Its chairman, who cheerfully attended a Ron Paul campaign event here just two months ago, has been a thorn in Mr. McCain’s political side for years. On Super Tuesday, Mr. McCain captured 47 percent of his party’s voters, hardly the resounding victory that a candidate who has represented his state for over 25 years might expect.

[Youphemism]

1. That photo is begging for a caption...

"If I have to spend one more day on the Straight Talk Express
with this woman, I think I'll just shoot myself."

[ChazII]

2. By Super Tuesday

Thompson had dropped out of the race BUT his name was on the ballot in AZ and many rethugs had already voted. Mitten's was still in the race as was the rev. Huck. It will be 'interesting' should he lose AZ. How many presidential candidates have lost their home state? (I know Google is my friend.)

[Median Democrat]

3. Local Arizona Press Has A Far Different View Of McCain Than National Press

The best stories regarding John McCain's volitile temper, for example, come from the local Arizona press. However, as was the case with CBS's cover-up of McCain botching a softball question from Katie Couric, the MSM filters out anything that does not jive with their portrait of an old, cuddly foreign policy expert and war hero who is prone to occasional senior moments. If its not consistent with this caricature, then the MSM filters it out.

[Cha]

4. The mainstreamediawhores would like to mold

America in their image but since they gave us 8 years of bush and the War On Iraq they're getting a bit of a challenge now with the Obama campaign and us on the internet.