Thursday, January 31, 2008

Where Have Obama and Clinton Been?

We know where they are now...getting ready for tonight's debate in Los Angeles. But here is a list of where each candidate has held campaign events since Saturday. (NOTE: I used both the New York Times and Washington Post sites to come up with this list, because some events were missing from one site or the other.)

Clinton: AR, CO, CT, FL, GA, MA, NJ, OK, and TN
Obama: AL, AZ, CO, CT, DC, GA, KS, and MO

A couple of things stand out here (other than the fact that neither candidate has traveled to Fairbanks, AK yet). First, the sheer number (nine for Clinton and eight for Obama) of states that each candidate has visited in a span of 5 days is pretty impressive. Both candidates are working hard to hold events in as many different states as possible during the week leading up to Super Tuesday. Second, the candidates are largely visiting different states. Out of the nine states each candidate has visited, there are only 3 states in common (CO, CT, and GA). This is very much unlike general election campaigns where both parties' candidates spend all of their time in the same places (see OH in 2004).

So, is this what life would be like if electoral votes were allocated proportionally? Or flip this around the other way...if delegates were awarded under the winner-take-all system used by states (except ME and NE) for allocating electoral votes, would the candidates have traveled anywhere other than CA?

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