I think Thune will come across likable to the American people, and doesn't have the baggage that other candidates have. However, he has a major flaw - South Dakota is not a major air hub. That could prevent him from winning the nomination over Gingrich, who has Atlanta, and Romney, who has Boston.
Can someone please explain this air-hub theory to me?
Apparently it's easier to campaign if there is an air hub near you because you have easier access to flying. Pbrower can explain it better. After all, he came up with it.
It's logistics, and it can explain why it is not advantageous to be from a state that doesn't have a big air hub. Since about 1960 all strong campaigns have been done by air, and even if the candidate has a private jet, not everyone in the campaign can so travel. Such staff get stuck with commercial travel.
The air hubs closest to South Dakota are Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Denver -- and that's where some critical campaign staff will need to go through to get to places like Indianapolis, Cleveland, Richmond, Charlotte, Orlando, and Albuquerque. At that Obama has an obvious advantage with staff located in greater Chicago, which has O'Hare International Airport. Airline transfers are always tricky, and if campaign staff must get to such a location as Charlottesville, Virginia from Sioux Falls, South Dakota one must make transfers in Minneapolis and Washington.
John Thune had better locate his campaign somewhere other than South Dakota. Like Chicago.
It was incredibly severe with Sarah Palin. Dude it's like a 90 minute flight from Sioux Falls to here. That is not some severe impediment that will derail a campaign. Not like Thune can't just base his campaign out of DC considering that's where he spends most of his time anyway, or that he won't be hiring staffers in all states and have all sorts of campaign HQs like every half-serious campaign does. No clearly a Thune campaign will have to run everything out of South Dakota.
