Which state next to come off battleground list?

[angus]

I voted for Nevada.

I think Obama will win Nevada.  I think that all the talking heads think that Obama will win Nevada.  I think that all the polls show at least a 3-point lead in Nevada.  The housing prices there have tanked worse than anywhere except Florida.  Folks seem to think, perhaps correctly, that decisions made by the Securities and Exchange Commission, particular those GOP appointees, led to the deregulation of the housing market that led to the subprime mortgage crisis.  I think that the 12% unemployment rate there is on of the highest in the nation and that they blame much of it on Republican policies.  

Too bad, really.  I've been to Las Vegas several times.  Hell, I was married in Vegas.  And I've spent more than a few weekends in Reno as well.  And I've tooled around Carson City, Elko, and the interior.  It's a lonely desert country full of mullets, cigarette addicts, gambling, prostitution, and general free-wheeling individualism.  It's the sort of place that Republicans ought to be able to easily count on.  But, to be honest, Republicans have made some decisions that cost Nevadans greatly.  We reap what we sow.  And there ain't much to sow in Nevada except Money and Hardship.  It comes in waves.  Now is a hardship time, and it'll be blamed on the GOP.  

In my prediction map, I put Nevada in Obama's camp long ago, and I have never even thought about changing it.