National Wave

The takeaway from this poll showing McCain barely ahead in his home state of Arizona, and the McCain campaign starting to spend in West Virginia, shows that campaigns in the cable news age are effectively national. Nobody's been "targeting" Arizona for it to suddenly be within striking distance. When everyone has access to information, it's kind of difficult to micro-target, and the impact is questionable. You could actually just run a national campaign and benefit from the changes in the national mood, as Obama has, particularly since the financial meltdown.

The other thing this shows is how demographic changes are basically locking up the electoral map for Democrats in the near term. If the Southwest can be put into the Democratic column along with the Northeast, Upper Midwest and the Pacific Coast, there suddenly are almost no paths to victory for the Republicans, as they retreat into a regional Southern and Plains state party. This wave is for real, and it's close to a realignment.

Maybe this will get the GOP to take seriously the National Popular Vote compact, which is only fair and equitable. At some point, our Presidential elections should be made to work the way every single one of our other elections work; based on the concept of one person, one vote.