In hindsight, Indiana going for Obama isn't that shocking

[anvi]

I was really surprised with the Indiana results, and so I decided to do a quick comparisson of Obama's performance in Indiana vs. Kerry's performance there four years ago.  Obviously, all the things mentioned in this discussion played nothing less than pivotal roles, the Chicago media market in the north, the aggressive voter registration drive the Democrats have staged in the state, and the fact that Obama won 75,000 more votes in Marion County than Kerry did while McCain got 25,000 less votes than Bush in '04 were all very crucial.  But, what really impressed me was how much Obama was able to push up Kerry's numbers in rural Indiana.  Obama outperformed Kerry by 10% of the vote or better in 59 counties in Indiana, and, in total, he received somewhere in the neighborhood of 80,000 more votes statewide than Kerry did in the mid-sized to small counties.  What is significant about this figure is that Obama only won the state by 26,000 votes.  This means that, even with Obama's great improvements on Kerry's performance in the northwest and in Marion, he would not have won the state without the powerful upticks in the rural counties.  I agree that '08 was the "perfect storm" for Obama, and I also agree that it is not likely that Obama will be able to replicate the performanceof Indiana this year in '12.  Still, the fact that Obama was able to flip Indiana was, to me, incredible.