Va. Joins Ranks of Swing States

Buoyed by recent Democratic gains in Virginia and President Bush's unpopularity, Barack Obama is taking aim at the once reliably red stronghold, the Washington Post reports. John McCain’s campaign is optimistic that he will carry the state, which Bush won twice by wide margins, but a top adviser cautions that even though the state has gone Republican since 1964, you can’t just “add water every 4 years.”

One indication of the state's importance is the fact that Virginians figure in both candidates' vice-presidential strategizing. Obama is spending big, with more than two dozen Virginia offices to McCain's three, and some 10,000 volunteers. But the state director acknowledges, "It will take a lot of pieces of the puzzle for us to add to be successful." (More Barack Obama stories.)