A Quinnipiac poll out today shows Sen. Barack Obama is leading Sen. John McCain in three key swing states: Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. According to the press release:

This is the first time Sen. Obama has led in all three states. No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College. Results from the independent Quinnipiac University polls (with a 2.6 percent margin of error):


  • Florida: Obama edges McCain 47 – 43 percent;
  • Ohio: Obama tops McCain 48 – 42 percent;
  • Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain 52 – 40 percent.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) carried Pennsylvania by just two percentage points in 2004 and only managed to garner 252 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. If Obama can hold all of the states Kerry won, and wins either Florida (27 electoral votes) or Ohio (20 electoral votes), he will become president. McCain’s proposal to lift the federal moratorium on off-shore oil exploration could have repercussions in Florida, a state renowned for its beaches and where support for the moratorium is high.


And this just in…the McCain camp has announced it will open its Ohio/Pennsylvania regional campaign office in Colombus tomorrow. McCain will be playing catch-up in both states, where the protracted primary fight forced Democrats to get an early start setting up offices and connecting with voters.


In any event, look for both campaigns to be spending even more time in these swing states than in 2004.