As we wait for voters in West Virginia to vote, and for those polls to close, there’s something that is obvious about today, if you follow polls and the news, anyway:

Obama’s going to lose, and pretty badly.

Of course, you have to take everything with a grain of salt, but if what everybody says is true, this won’t be a good day for him?

Why?  Well, a number of factors, but I think it’s loss of appeal to blue-collar voters.  We’ve seen it time and again.  Even in states Obama wins, he has a tough time with white, blue-collar voters.  The cities are his domain, and in most places with a university, Obama rocks it out.

Unfortunately, that won’t win him the general election, especially when he has to start convincing conservatives to vote for him, as he’s going to need them against McCain.  Therefore, Obama needs to start moving to the center.

Just like how McCain was courting further right conservatives during the end of his primary run, I argued he also needed to start moving toward the center, or risk losing some of the Independents he’d picked up.  It is the same with Obama.

It is going to perhaps require considering other viewpoints that he may not have previously considered, but it is necessary, or he’ll have a tough time come November.  He needs to appeal to not only blue-collar Democrats, but he’ll also need Independent and even some conservatives to win the general.  So, he needs to begin speaking in a new way, especially when faced with some of the more conservative Democrats.