Virginia the New Swing State

For the past two elections, the tie for the most swinging of swing states was Florida, then Ohio. No Republican has entered the White House without winning Florida, and the demographics in that state mirror the diverse demography of the entire country, with great swaths of rural fields and urban concentrations, conservative values and liberal sensitivities North and South, rivers, lakes, streams, geography of difference abounding throughout.

This election cycle, however, Ohio looks to be slam dunk for the GOP. The economic recession, coupled with overburdening regulations, has chased industry out of the Great Lakes Rust Belt, even though the incumbent promised hope and change to turn around the moribund economy which he inherited.

The economic outlook has not improved. Indiana, along with Ohio and Wisconsin, have grown a deeper hue of red over the past three years, with the Progressive Dairy State not only electing a union-busting governor, but supporting him by a growing margin in an abortive recall effort.

Florida, too, is shifting back to red, a fluke of the GOP-ire that ruined moderate John McCain's watered-down chances of taking the White House following eight years of un-compassionate statist conservatism.

Now Virginia looks to be the next swingingest of swing states. A Democratic north, urban and elite, is growing in sharp contrast to a Republican south, rural and earthy, mimicking the diminished divide that had put Ohio in the toss-up column.

Virginia is certainly shaping up into a new battleground state. A swing-state, perhaps, if we judge exclusively by the anti-Bush rhetoric that swept many Republican incumbents out of office.

Ohio will certainly drift back into the Republican column. Senator Sherrod  Brown is an out-of-touch progressive losing ground in this former battleground state.  Even reliable and principled leftist Dennis Kucinich lost in a hard-fought primary following the diminution of the Buckeye State's Congressional delegation. The manufacturing sector has also suffered terribly under the Obama Administration' ill-conceived policies. Industry has fled to overseas, and only a change in leadership and ideology will bring them back. Ohioans know this, and they will vote accordingly

Florida is looking like less of a battle-ground state, especially following President Obama's ill-advised and poorly-time evolution on "gay marriage". The ageing population in Florida demonstrated the maturity to accept that this nation cannot bankroll Social Security and Medicare forever according to current federal metrics. Marco Rubio ran in 2012 on an austerity platform,  and leaped ahead of GOP-turned-independent Charlie Christ and a flagging Democratic challenger.

Virginia swung to the left in 2008, then slowly flushed red again in 2009 as President Obama's gilded touch turned into tragedy in one state contest after another. Despite the more aggrandized polarization in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Governor Romney and his party are certain to take back the state with little fanfare. Even formerly disgraced native son George Allen is in a strong position to take back the Senate seat that he suddenly lost six years ago during another bad year for Republicans.

If there any swing states this year, they are swinging this country back to limited government, constitutional principles, free markets, and above all state sovereignty.