Minnesota is notoriously unelastic, but you're right that Obama underperformed relative to our expectations. Not sure wth you're thinking about Iowa.
Swing Voters and Elastic States
Where elasticity is defined as the amount the state would swing with a 1% uniform swing:
That is a poor measure of elasticity. He doesn't look at actual voting patterns at all; it just measures the percentage of respondents in the 2008 exit poll who lack demographic characteristics that are strong predictors of voting behavior. However, whether a given demographic group is elastic is independent of whether membership in the group is a strong predictor of voting behavior. Say group A consists of 50% loyal Dems and 50% loyal Reps, whereas group B consists of 75% loyal Dems, 20% swing voters and 5% loyal Reps. Group B is more elastic despite membership in group B being a stronger predictor of voting behavior.
A better measure can be found using the actual voting results on this website. In 8 of the 10 past elections, Minnesota has trended, in Leip's sense, towards the party whose percentage of the two-party vote declines.