By Wesley Johnson, PA, in New York
(21, McCain 40.6%, Obama 49.8%; 2004: Bush 49%, Kerry 51%)
Like Michigan, Pennsylvania has hundreds of thousands of white, mostly working-class Democrats who seem wary of Mr Obama and sometimes vote Republican. Once the largest and most important city in the Union, Philadelphia was at the heart of culture and commerce and the Founding Fathers met in the Keystone State to build the US constitution. But its power diminished and many industrial sectors did not recover from the Great Depression and, more recently, it has been hard hit by the long decline in heavy manufacturing jobs, especially in the steel and car industries.Mr Obama tells the state's workers, and its unemployed, that Republicans have abandoned them and promises to invest in technologies that will create jobs, and to cut middle-class taxes to help families pay their bills.
Mr McCain also promises to bring more jobs, but places more emphasis on across-the-board tax cuts and greater flexibility in finding health insurance.
(The figures in brackets show the number of electoral college votes available in each state, along with the name of the two candidates and the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls on October 6, 2008, and the results of the 2004 election between George Bush and John Kerry.)
