The Electoral Map From the 2008 Presidential Election
By Ed Lathrop, Tea Party Views Contributor
In the electoral scheme of things Connecticut means nothing. However, it is interesting the Romney/Ryan ticket is doing much better at this time than McCain/Palin did in the 2008 election. Sure, this isn’t as exciting as it would be had Connecticut been one of the so-called swing states or, if Connecticut happened to have a little more than just its paltry 7 electoral votes because as it stands, there is no viable scenario where Connecticut would swing the national election. This is why presidential candidates totally ignore Connecticut.
Still, it is interesting Obama won the state of Connecticut in 2008 by a margin of 22.5%. Also, in Connecticut, more than 75% of the legislators are from the Democrat party. In other words, Connecticut is about as liberal a state as one can find. A case in point is the fact Richard Blumenthal is one of its senators! So, Romney/Ryan or any other Republican ticket has very little, if any chance of winning Connecticut’s 7 electoral votes. Therefore, Connecticut’s changing from a blue state to a light blue state seems rather noteworthy.
A dark blue state is a state the pollsters and pundits have already put in to the Obama column for the November election. In other words, a dark blue state is a state that is safe for the Democrat presidential nominee. In what seems like it must be an upsetting piece of news to the Dems, on August 14, 2012 Connecticut was moved to a light blue state. In other words, the state is still seen as one where Obama is ahead but the race has tightened up. Some of the polls are showing that Obama’s lead in Connecticut has narrowed to 9 percentage points, or 13 1/2 percentage points closer than he won the state by less than four years ago.
Whether this says more about the Romney/Ryan ticket versus the McCain/Palin ticket or about the fact Obama has just lost a lot of his steam in Connecticut, is not known at this time. It also is unknown if this trend is only happening in Connecticut or if perhaps it is the start of a nationwide trend. Still, it does seem to mean the very liberal state of Connecticut is not overwhelmed with glee about the Obama presidency. So, as crazy as it might seem, Connecticut is actually in play in a presidential election for the first time in the last 7 times the voters have gone to the polls to elect a president.
Once again, Connecticut trending toward Romney does not mean a lot in the electoral scheme of things. However, if the trend is that each of the states will swing 13 points in the Romney direction it will mean a Republican landslide in November. This is what is important about Connecticut changing from a blue state to a light blue state.
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