Obama to Michigan

I normally judge how the campaigns are doing by talking to my somewhat informed, but non-political-junky co-workers. They cover the whole ideological spectrum, with varying levels of political information consumption, so by talking to them, I can get an accurate sense of "American public support". I like to think of them as my private focus group, actually.

This is why it's critically important for Sen. Obama to focus on state polling and visiting specific locales like Lansing, Michigan, rather than focusing on the back-and-forth John McCain prefers. While the back-and-forth is interesting for people like me and the traditional media, normal people don't follow it. They do follow the local news. Everyone knew that Sen. McCain cancelled his visit to New Orleans due to our huge oil spill/hurricane, they don't know that Sen. Obama went to Baskin Robins on his first date with Michelle.