It was done before Obama's speech, too, I believe, and obviously before the RNC.
Still, ND has been pretty tight the whole way. About even, which is stunning, given that Bush won it by 20 or 30 points in 2004. So, given Bush's score, it would be damned impressive if Obama won it. Astonishing, actually.
But Obama plays well in the Upper Great Plains and the Mountain West relative to other Dems, and a little worse in the Rust Belt (I think), although he's beating Kerry everywhere. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
The politics are mixed. ND has been reliable GOP regarding Presidential voting (Bush carried it 67% in '04) but the state has Democratic Senators.
With few Electoral College votes (3?, damnifno) North Dakota isn't important in and of itself but it can be looked at as a 'sample' of how people in the rural, inter-Mountain West are breaking.
Lots of the German immigrants actually came from Russia, so it's a rather peculiar background.
Off hand, there should be commonalities between North Dakota and rural western Iowa. Last I checked, McCain was losing that area that, again, went heavily for Bush in '04.
More support for Drew's conclusion the McCain people freakeing over the internals triggered the Palin nomination.
