WSJ says Pa. 'must win' state for McCain

John McCain and Sarah Palin might as well move to Pennsylvania over the next 25 days if they hope to occupy the White House in January.

Veteran political writer Rhodes Cook says Pennsylvania is a "must win" state for Republican John McCain

Despite the Democratic Party's voter registration advantage in the Keystone State, Republicans can still win, Cook says.

From Cook's article in the The Wall Street Journal:

A countervailing trend is quite evident in the state's blue-collar bastions. Loyal to the Democratic Party since the "New Deal" days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, blue-collar voters have wavered of late in their support of the party’s national ticket.

This has been particularly noticeable in western Pennsylvania around Pittsburgh — "Deer Hunter" country where patriotism and traditional values are the way of thinking. Organized labor used to be a major part of the mix, pushing workers to vote their economic interests. But Republicans have made headway on "values" issues as the importance of coal and steel, the region’s economic backbone, has waned.

Read the full story, "Pennsylvania Voters Exemplify Evolving Electorate," at the newspaper's Web site.