Swing State

The editorial pages in swing states across the country drew differing conclusions from Thursday's first presidential debate. Although many were neutral, in general more papers gave the edge to Kerry over Bush. * St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The disconcerting thing is that both candidates may be wrong about the ability to win against a growing insurgency. Some day we may look back at this election and despair that neither candidate had a realistic idea of what lies ahead in Iraq." * Tampa [Fla.

President Obama got welcome final-week polling news Wednesday as new surveys in several keenly contested states showed him holding or expanding a lead. In Wisconsin, a new survey from the Marquette University Law School showed Obama grabbing an 8 point lead, 51%-43%, over Mitt Romney among likely voters. The poll also showed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin clinging to a four point edge over Republican Tommy Thompson in a race that could prove pivotal to control of the Senate.

A commotion unfolds in the tiny public library here as the staff searches for a copy of the memoir written by Harry Reid, Senate Democratic leader and Searchlight native. "Has anyone seen Harry's book?" a librarian calls out. A local patron grabs a trash can and peers inside: "It's not where it's supposed to be," he says. In his hometown at least, there seems to be little affection for Reid, whom some residents describe as a distant figure out of touch with local concerns.

President Obama has attended twice the number of fundraisers as his predecessor and has made over a dozen more trips to key battleground states this year. Obama visited battleground states 46 times and attended 58 fundraisers for his reelection campaign since January, according to data compiled by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau and Brendan Doherty, an assistant professor of political science at the U.S. Naval Academy. By comparison, President George W. Bush visited battleground states just 30 times and attended 29 fundraisers for his reelection campaign in the first 10 months of 2003.

President Obama gave ESPN the basketball thinking behind his March Madness bracket picks this year, but as the NCAA tournament cranks up in earnest today, a more political analysis shows that he didn't forget it's an election year: Of Obama's 32 selections to win at least one game, 19 teams come from battleground states, and he picked 11 of those to make the Sweet 16. States getting particularly favorable treatment from the world's most powerful...

Could the auto industry determine the next president? The different views of the $85-billion auto industry bailout by the contenders for the White House are sure to influence voters in a swing state such as Ohio, where making cars represents a huge chunk of the state's economy. The recovering industry makes for "a good story to tell," especially for the Democrats and President Obama, who pushed the bailout, said Thilo Koslowski, an automotive analyst at research firm Gartner Inc. when the latest auto sales numbers came out earlier this month.

New state-by-state job numbers are out, and they indicate that the economies of crucial swing states are still limping along, which might present a challenge to President Obama's reelection hopes. Nevada, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico and Indiana all lost jobs from May to June, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while states such as California and North Dakota added jobs. Growth was also anemic in Florida, where the president had been campaigning this week.

New polls in four battleground states show President Obama holding a lead of 5 to 7 points over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, reinforcing the national surveys that indicate that the incumbent gained ground with his convention last week. Of the four, Obama's largest lead comes in the critical state of Ohio, where he leads Romney 50% to 43% among likely voters, according to the latest NBC/Wall St. Journal/Marist University poll .  The survey also polled likely voters in Florida, where Obama led 49% to 43%, and Virginia, where he led 49% to 44%. In a separate survey by New Hampshire's WMUR-TV , Obama led Romney 45% to 40% in that state.

In one Florida county, voters were wrongly told they could vote the day after the election. In storm-racked New Jersey, emergency plans to allow email voting proved too popular for election officials to handle. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, a variety of problems raised questions about the integrity of the vote. Although most Americans cast ballots without incident Tuesday, there were enough glitches to cause concern among voting rights activists and to provide work for some of the thousands of lawyers who were standing by, representing parties, candidates and nonpartisan voter advocacy groups.