I think it’s safe to say that this is the most exciting election of our generation thus far. I don’t know anyone who would disagree with that – while some political analysts might consider the popularity of the 2008 presidential race an abomination, a bastardization of the typically solemn democratic process, I can’t really see the downside when more young people are getting involved on both sides as fervently as they are. In fact, one of the reasons that I applied for this project was the knowledge that this election would be as historic as it already has proven to be.

Unfortunately, the dread which I’ve described in previous posts that the contest will not be quite so contested in my home state seems to be echoed in the actions of both parties over the past couple of months. I don’t think it will compromise my impartiality to say that regardless of who wins West Virginia, I simply hope for a close race in the months preceding the election, to inspire as many young people as possible to dip their toes in the electoral waters.

Unfortunately, just as in the mountain state’s Democratic primary, which was called in favor of Sen. Clinton long before the votes were cast, things appear to be tipping irrevocably in favor of Sen. McCain. I only say unfortunate, as this margin is the kind of thing that could instill Obama supporters with an early sense of defeat, and fill McCain supporters with a sense of confidence – neither of which really lend themselves to political activism.

This foreshadowing comes from a polling of West Virginians from Mark Blankenship Enterprises this past weekend, in which the McCain/Palin ticket received 44% of the pollsters’ support, and Obama/Biden won 39%. Attentive math majors have probably noticed that 17% of those polled were undecided – many voters in this group are registered independents, which McCain has wooed a majority of in West Virginia thus far.

The reasons for McCain’s current leg-up are numerous. His recent choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate certainly helped matters, as it’s a little known fact that West Virginians love Alaska – or, as we affectionately refer to it, “The West Virginia of the North”, or simply, “Pacific North-West Virginia”. We appreciate and sympathize with their energy-producing ways, as well as their easily lampooned regional dialect.

Still, it could have something to do with the fact that the same poll mentioned above showed that 45% of West Virginia voters, regardless of party affiliation, consider themselves to be conservative.

Or perhaps it is due to the sentiment expressed by many West Virginia Democrats (such as DNC delegate Corley Dennison, whom I interviewed earlier last month) that Obama isn’t paying an appropriate amount of attention to the Mountain State, especially when compared to McCain, who has spoken at a number of smaller venues across the state as of late – such as his speech to the Marshall University football team last month.

The Obama campaign recently redrew their campaign road map to include several East Coast swing states which they had previously planned on neglecting in their race to the 270 electoral votes that would place the Illinois senator in the White House – chief among these being Ohio. Obama has visited the Buckeye state twice in the past week, vying for its 20 votes – four times the amount of votes rewarded by West Virginia, whose doorstep he hasn’t darkened since mid-May.

His lack of time spent in the Mountain State is not his only hindrance in his chances of winning our votes – despite the fact that he raised nearly twice as much in statewide campaign funding than Sen. McCain, the Obama campaign headquarters in Charleston only just opened last week, nearly two months after the opening of McCain’s local base of operations.

To ensure any chance of securing West Virginia’s five electoral votes (which I feel compelled to yet again mention that no Democratic candidate has ever won the presidency without), or to at least make things interesting, Obama will need to step up his local campaigning – and, of course, he’ll need to cross the Ohio River, and put in enough face time to compete with the Arizona senator.

I’ve been to Ohio three times in the past two weeks. It’s not that long a drive.