A Battleground State of Affairs

This past Monday, BoxcarPR’s Rainmaker and Trailblazer (Bob and Elizabeth) and Ted Jackson, a political consultant and CEO of English Emprise and Boxcar’s newest staff member, traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with our public issue advocacy clients and contacts.

Our two days of meetings allowed us to gain incredible insight from inside the Beltway where public relations and advocacy experts shared their differing views on the outcome of the election. The hottest topic: What will happen in battleground states such as Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

As a state that will undoubtedly favor Governor Romney in two weeks, Kentucky is void of the television and radio ads flooding the airwaves in these battleground states. It’s easy to forget just how close this election is without the media barrage we saw on our trip.

On Monday night we were able to catch the Presidential foreign policy debate where the zinger of the night went to President Obama:

“You mention the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets,” Obama said during the final presidential debate.”

The outcome of November 6 can be changed by the slightest comment of either candidate. While Barack Obama now-famous “bayonets and swords” zing set the Twitterverse afire, what did it do for his Electoral College standings? One must remember that Newport News and Norfolk, Virginia along with ports in Florida are some of the largest Naval bases for the U.S. President Obama’s snarky response likely hurt his standings in Virginia and Florida.

As Election Day nears, here’s no room for error or snark in these key swing states.