Utterly dumbfounded that MI has any votes, let alone is leading MN. Do the math people.
Minnesota by default as the closest of those states in 2008. It just doesn't swing much in overall vote. It does swing severely against Republicans with respect to the national average in Republican blowouts -- as the second-worst state for Nixon in 1972 and the worst for Reagan in 1984. (It did go R+ in one of the Eisenhower elections, which says much about Ike). It was near the middle of the pack for Obama in 2008, though.
Voting habits are very rigid in Minnesota. The state just does not swing.
...Barack Obama is the most polarizing of Presidential nominees ever, winning some states as if a Democratic version of Reagan in 1984 and losing as if the second coming of George McGovern in some others. It is hard to see anyone with such a divide in voting for him and against him ever happening again.
Pborower, that isn't entirely untrue, but we're comparing MN to
Michigan! MICHIGAN!!!