Uhhh, I never finished college

It's May 20th and I'm calling it now.

Here's my electoral college predictions, barring any unforeseen insanity, such as John McCain strangling a reporter with his bare hands (which would help him win in a landslide of unprecedented proportions) or Barack Obama doing something really stupid, like making Hillary Clinton his running mate.

With my unrivaled and unequaled prognosticating abilities, I am calling the 2008 presidential election for Barack Obama. The Age of the Aged White Man will come to an end and the age of...of what...the Age of Change will begin.

Here's how I see the electoral map. I see it in Blue and Red.

Sorry.

Obama will sweep the West Coast from California to Washington state. Surprisingly, he'll also win in Idaho and Montana, two states one traditionally think of as bastions of Republicanism, but are now, I think, filled with independent thinking, Republican leaning voters who are fed up with what the GOP has become, and John McCain won't be enough of a maverick for them. To Obama those states will go.

In the West and South-West, McCain will take his home state of Arizona, as well as Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming. Republicans will stay strong in the breadbasket states like Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. But their neighbors to the north will, oddly, go for Obama: Nebraska, North and South Dakota. Add to these the traditionally independent thinking Minnesota and you've got something going on. Also, the I's will have it: Iowa and Illinois will vote for Obama. Breaking up this patch of solid blue will be Wisconsin, a swing state that will swing to a Republican tune in 2008.

I think history will be made in the Deep South. Blue will cover Dixie from Louisiana through Mississippi and Alabama and into Georgia. Tennessee and Kentucky will stay Republican.

The Northeast will be solidly Democratic from Maine to New York. Maryland and Virginia will go for Obama, as will South Carolina but not North. Don't ask, I don't know why.

McCain will carry Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Florida and Michigan, states irredeemably pissed off at the Democratic party and their botched handling of the primaries. To no avail though. Obama will end up with 304 electoral votes, McCain 234, thus electing the first (semi-) black to the presidency. The Age of Change will be upon us. Thankfully. We could elect a goat to be president and have better results than we had with W.

Bear in mind, I predicted the Packers would win the Super Bowl, and my prediction for this year in baseball is for the Cubs to go all the way.

Think you can do better? Go to 270towin.com and crunch your own numbers.