McCain VS Obama #02 ~ MONTANA: Harbinger of the New West

montanagas
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

Yes, that's right: Montana. Long thought of as a Red State when it's ever tilting, tilting, tilting populism has rendered it BLUE in so many ways.

The maps show (top to bottom) 1) the relative price of regular gasoline (the first week of June '08), 2) the median annual household incomes, and by extrapolation, 3) the % of household income now being spent of filling up the family car and the farm equipment.

In the top map you see that there's a lot of blue. And blue represents gas under $4.00 a gallon--the darker shade of blue the better. Most of Montana lags behind the national average--lucky Montana.

The middle map shows the annual household income averages for the state's 55 counties. Montana is not a rich state. 9 or 16% of it's counties boast annual average incomes below $25,000 and 62% of the counties make a living with less $35,000 in annual average receipts.

Granted that the cost of living in Montana is less in many ways than in other states, yet based on a national average of 4% of household income going to buying gasoline, the third map shows that NO COUNTY in the state is either at or below 4%. Ergo, the rise of gasoline is impacting the people of Montana more profoundly that most other states.

So, what does this have to do with the premise of this posting or this series? Plenty.

Montana is a state in political flux in the way that many western states are, but in Montana the tides have turned with great power. In Montana, both of its Senators (or the seat of it real power in Washington, D.C.) are Democrats: Max Baucus and Jon Testor. (Only western neighbors California, Washington, and Hawaii can claim membership in that club.) Montana's governor, Brian Schwietzer, is also a democrat and hugely popular--neigh beloved by Montanans.

So where does Obama hold the high ground in Montana?. . .with the economy, stupid. With the earnest support of Brian, Jon & Max. Montana is utterly open. It may only have 3 votes in the quest for the magic 270, but when you expect, as I do, that Obama will win all of the states that John Kerry did, he only needs 18 votes to win. Winning Montana would a symbolic paradigm shift for both the state and the region.

And I think he can do it!