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The state-by-state dry runs of the blue and red graphic aids for election night were assigned to George Stephanopoulos at ABC, Jeff Greenfield at CBS and Chuck Todd at NBC. Todd called the Republican task "very, very difficult when you look at it but it is still possible." It would mean maintaining control of five toss-up states--Fla, Mont, Nev, Mo, Va--and winning over Pennsylvania. Stephanopoulos, too, zeroed in on the Keystone State: "So many of his maps start with taking that state away from the Democrats." Greenfield pointed to early in the evening. Polls in Virginia, Georgia and Indiana close at 7pm. If Barack Obama is declared the winner of any of those states, "McCain's path gets really tricky."
Yet for its swing state profile, NBC sent Mark Potter to Missouri, the state that has voted for the winner of 25 of the last 26 elections. Potter called it both "battleground and bellwether" even though it is in the central time zone and so is unlikely to be a bellwether this year. Its poll closing follows decisive states rather than preceding them. Potter's tip for demarcating red county from blue county was the pronunciation of the state's final syllable: "uh" for GOP; "ee" for Dems.
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