Reports: Romney giving up on Pennsylvania (?!)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Romney should be aiming for an exact copy of the 2000 map minus one of the trio of NV, CO, and NH.

The lack of PA is interesting but not surprising--it's a big and expensive state to campaign/run ads in, and it consistently votes 2-5 points more Democratic than the nation. Romney should make some strikes at PA to relieve pressure from more critical wins, but he shouldn't aim for a win; we know what happened when McCain neglected the whole country to focus on PA for two months.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I would think PA would be more winnable than MI for a number of reasons (auto bailout, fracking/coal, slightly more Catholics, higher Appalachian hating of Obama than in 08)

White Catholics are much more Democratic than white Protestants, and PA is also a strong manufacturing state.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

No, white Catholics are still more D than mainliners; they're like 51-48 McCain.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Not sure. However, the more Catholic areas seem to be more Democratic.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Catholics are now a 50-50 voting group if you ask me, one group tends to take poverty and social injustice as a big issue, and the other takes pro-life and anti-gay rights as a top issue.

Catholics are lean Democratic overall due to Hispanics, while white Catholics are swing to tilt R.