If you have to campaign aggressively to win your home state there's a problem.
I realize you are an unhappy Edwards backer, but get real. He came in a distant 3rd in this race. Time to get over it and move on.
No, having to campaign at all in a state is not a problem, its a fact of life. If US Presidential politics, a campaign that abandons a state where it does not enjoy a strong PV advantage at the outset to the other party, does not win the state.
Putting the hypothesis "to the test" involves campaigning and losing. The top of the ticket conceding a state and losing is not something that the bottom of the ticket can conceivably do anything to change, so a bottom of the ticket not flipping a Republican PV state to blue in those circumstances is a "no observation" data point.
Judging a candidate on that basis says either the person making the judgment is gullible to Mess Media talking points, or else the person making the judgment is arriving at a foreordained conclusion and and finds the argument a convenient rationalization. Utsukushikereba sore de ii
If John Edwards had insisted on campaigning in his home state, he could have given it a shot. Suspect he also knew he couldn't flip that situation given his own weak standing there. C'est la vie. He added nothing to the ticket in the end like a 20 yr younger John Glenn might have. Favorite sons usually have some extra support.
I get very little info from the mass media. Blaming your problems/losses on them also says something. Edward's message did not sell. Not in 2004 and not again in 2008. Not in states with retail politics nor in those with wholesale messaging. Sorry. At some point you gotta move on. Or you can wring your hands until they are sore. Up to you.
