The last five months Presidential campaigning reminded me of "The Wizard of Oz" at times.
The public views Barack Obama as the lion with no courage and John McCain as the tin man that doesn't have a heart. That makes Joe Biden the scarecrow without a brain and Sarah Palin as the newcomer Dorothy with her faithful terrier Toto - who is starring as an Alaskan Moose.
In this race the battle ground states are the yellow brick road, with Oz being the oval office.
The main stages for this play are Ohio, Colorado and Florida with an arguable dozen other swing states waiting in the wings.
Whether the rest of the country believes it, Indiana is a swing state according to the Obama campaign.
This Saturday marks 30 days until the election and the beginning of state-wide early voting.
According to recent poll numbers, Obama will not be the first Democrat to win Indiana's 11 electoral votes since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
The Sept. 16 CNN/Time opinion poll shows McCain up 48 percent to 43 percent and Sept. 18 Rasmussen polls reports McCain up 49 percent to 47 percent. The only poll showing Obama leading Indiana is by the Indianapolis TV station WTHR where the Illinois senator enjoys a 47 percent to 44 percent lead.
Polls are turning the state red for good reason. Indiana has only voted Democrat once since "The Wizard of Oz" debuted on film in 1939. It has turned blue four times since L. Frank Baum published the original book in 1900.
To win Hoosier's votes Obama will need to cater to the minority vote, the youth vote and he just needs to show up.
The youth and minority vote remain a central voting block of the Obama campaign.
Obama won 91 percent of black men and 88 percent of black women in the Indiana primary. His national numbers can be equally steep in states like Virginia and Illinois with a large black population.
The youth vote is still a big question. The Obama campaign has been the most visible side on Ball State University campus during the last month of voter registration. Blue shirts and signs saying "change" are a staple within the Art and Journalism Building and along McKinley Avenue.
But polling experts say the youth vote is hard to track in national and state polls. National pollsters use land lines to poll their intended group. Students' attachment to their cell phones doesn't allow their voices to be heard as easily, if at all, in the final polling results. On election day, these two subsections have to come out en masse in support of the Illinois Senator if he hopes to turn Indiana blue.
Most importantly, Obama has to back up what he told a packed Irving Gym on April 14. Obama said that he will be back to Muncie before election day, something his campaign has failed to follow through with.
Instead, Indiana saw Joe Biden in Jeffersonville Sept. 24, Madeline Albright talking about foreign policy in Bloomington Sept. 19 and Michelle Obama in Fishers Sept. 10.
While these people are connected with his campaign, Obama needs to show up and make Hoosiers feel like they mean something. People cried from happiness when he entered Irving Gym last spring. Obama needs to remind all Indiana voters - not just the youth and inner-city black vote - why a red state should go blue.
Bob Culp is a junior majoring in journalism and writes 'The Next Level' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.
Write to Bob at rlculp@bsu.edu
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