Tomorrow is election day and the Commonwealth is still up for grabs. The latest polls give Barack Obama a single digit lead over John McCain.
According to the Public Policy Polling, Obama is ahead by six points, 52 to 46. SurveyUSA has Obama leading 50 to 46.
While Obama leads in all polls for Virginia, McCain was endorsed by Charlottesville’s Daily Progress. The paper argues that the U.S. is faced with two fundamental problems: the economy and terrorism, “And the candidate most likely to safely lead America through these perils is John McCain.”
Even if McCain’s “support for a flawed bailout package is disappointing,” argues the Progress, “yet, in the long run, his basic understanding of the need for economic freedom will stand us in good stead.”
The endorsement did not come as a surprise. The Progress has endorsed Republican candidates for the last two elections.
But in line with the national sentiment, UVA Politics Professor Larry Sabato predicts the Commonwealth will go to Obama. UVA Today reports that in a pre-game lecture on Saturday morning, Sabato predicted that Obama will win 364 electoral votes against McCain’s 174.
Virginia has been a stronghold for Republicans for more than 40 years—the last Democrat to win Virginia’s electoral votes was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Britain’s Channel 4 chose Charlottesville to highlight the apparent change in the national electorate.
The segment focused on UVA students and their feelings about race, politics and Virginia. Rather than dancing around the question, the reporter asked students whether they were voting for their candidate of choice because of his race.
