the buzz log

Tuesday will be E-Day, when the lines will be long and the media blitz intense, especially for the biggest three swing states: Ohio (20 electoral votes), Pennsylvania (21) and Florida (27). In the past seven days, voters from all three have turned online to make their final decisions on presidential contenders John McCain (R) and Barack Obama (D).

Among the shared searches for McCain:
  • "mccain on snl," "john mccain biography," "john mccain website," "john mccain campaign," "john mccain meet the press," "mccain tax calculator," "support mccain palin," "celebrities for mccain."

Among the shared searches for Obama:
  • "barack obama jokes," "barack hussein obama," "barak obama antichrist prophecy," "barack obama family," "barack obama infomercial," "barack obama speech," "barack obama tax calculator," "barack obama website," "is obama a muslim," "la times obama," "obama assassination," "obama citzenship," "obama for president," "obama gun control," "obama health care plan," "republicans for obama."

Below details what residents in the political trinity have been researching. To review other battleground denizens' searches on Yahoo!, follow these links:
• Virginia and North Carolina
• Nevada and Colorado
• Montana and New Hampshire
• New Mexico and Virginia
• Indiana and Missouri

 

Troop Activity
	Ohio	Pennsylvania	Florida
Obama	86%	83%	80%
Biggest McCain Spike	"mccain.com" (+643%)	"john mccain pictures" (+802%)	"cindy mccain bio" (+659%)
Biggest Obama Spike	"barack obama's father" (+28,879%)	"barack obama's father" (+69,058%)	"barack obama's father" (+32,473%)
Distinctive McCain Searches	"john mccain family," "john mccain daughter," "meghan mccain"	"how old is john mccain," "cindy mccain plastic surgery"	See Pennsylvania
Distinctive Obama Searches	"obama effigy," "obama not us citizen," "obama on abortion," "obama tax cut calculator"	"biden obama," "obama speech tonight," "vote obama"	"barack obama on tv," "barack obama pledge of allegiance," "barack obama quotes," "barack obama tv commercial," "facts about obama," "how old is barack obama," "obama antichrist nostradamus," "obama coal," "obama myspace layouts," "obama rally," "obama terrorist"

Final Offensives: Both sides came to Ohio Nov. 2, Sarah Palin representing the Republican pitch (with a hard hit on the coal issue) and Obama the Democrat one (playing the Dick Cheney card). Live musical accompaniment: Gretchen Wilson stood by Palin, Bruce Springsteen with Obama.
Insider View: Good mood pervates the long lines for early voting. The Plain Dealer abstracts the local blog mood, and also profiles how black churches are moving away from political activism. Obama may be too different, according to McClatchy Newspapers, but Time believes it may all rest on a single county.

 

Final Offensives: McCain hit what he hopes to be the comeback trail Nov. 2. Joe Biden and the Clintons sub for Obama Nov. 3.
Insider View: Pennsylvania governors past and present weighed in on the Early Show. The Republican Party dusted off Reverend Jeremiah Wright for an ad. KYW News Radio points out felons on parole or probation have the right to vote.

 

Final Offensives: Al Gore returned to the scene of the crime on Halloween. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin stumped Nov. 1 (but, naturally, not together). Obama paid a final visit Monday, as did McCain.
Insider View: Despite estimates of six-hour wait times, early voters stuck it out. Governor Charles Crist extended early voting hours last week, a move that some claim doesn't benefit the Republicans. Meanwhile, rather than wait until the last moment, local Democrats filed a lawsuit against the GOP over bad addresses. A Florida State University research talked to NPR about how weather changes an election.

 

curious scenes from battleground states