Obama narrows race in Montana - AP

[wiseoldman]

With visits and money, Obama narrows race in Mont. By MATT GOURAS – 6 hours ago

"HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Republican John McCain has history on his side in Montana. Democrat Barack Obama has 19 campaign offices.......

But Obama staked out Montana early as a potential battleground state and he's sticking with it to the end. McCain, confident of winning the state's three electoral votes, is virtually ignoring it, although the Republican National Committee will begin airing ads in Montana for the first time Wednesday.

Obama's campaign didn't back off when the state appeared to be a shoo-in for McCain in September. And now McCain's lead appears to be in doubt. A recent Montana State University-Billings poll showed the race within the margin of error, with Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 40 percent among likely voters, and 10 percent undecided".

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOCdtRJC2KtvEO-4objteuwRov0QD943I5TO0

RCP Average Pools 10/01 - 10/25 - McCain 47.8 Obama 44.4 McCain +3.4 ... BUT watch out for Ron Paul, not in the polling data

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/mt/montana_mccain_vs_obama-614.html

[Deep13]

1. I saw it was 47-47 this morning. nt

[BlueIdaho]

2. Does that include Ron Paul?

Here in Idaho there are still plenty of folks with Ron Paul yard signs and bumper tickers - he has a real draw out here in the real west.

[Deep13]

4. It didn't say. It had one of those electoral maps and listed MT as "tied." nt

[jpgray]

3. Fuck yeah! Some great people in Bozeman, Missoula, Choteau, etc.

I used to live in Billings as a kid (all my friends were oil executive scions :P), and it would warm my cold withered heart to see Big Sky country go blue! Kudos to Obama and Dean for the wide-ranging strategy this year!

[kwolf68]

5. One of my favorite people ever

Is a Cowboy from Montana I met some years ago when he was living here. Damn, I liked him. Doubt he'd be an Obama supporter, but he was an interesting bird.

A lot of his musings were very progressive in nature I must admit though he would probably be considered a Libertarian Republican.

[jpgray]

6. That's the bizarre thing--so many real "rugged individualists" hold essentially progressive ideals

That the GOP has successfully marketed that attitude as being irrevocably Republican is one of the great tragedies of our political discourse--listening to a lot of these leathery varmints sound off on the issues reminds me more of Dennis Kucinich than Rush Limbaugh. The area -is- filled with some mindless GOP stooges, but there is a lot of untapped progressive sentiment that has been successfully muffled. Although, looking at Schweitzer I have a lot of hope that this might change.

[wiseoldman]

7. Ron Paul signs everywhere up here in Gods Country

I'm in Northwest Montana and Ron Paul signs are everywhere... Obama signs also but hardly a McCain sign can be found. Most of the Obama signs have bullet holes in them, but that's not a big deal, most signs have bullet holes in them up here, especially "NO HUNTING" and "NO TRESPASSING" signs. Everyone I talk to thinks Palin is a nit-wit, so no McCain help there.