Pennsylvania Is No Longer a Swing State

At the beginning of the campaign for the 2012 presidential election, GOP strategists had their eyes on Pennsylvania as a battleground state that could be the fat kid on their end of the seesaw. But, since then, President Barack Obama has been consistently up in Pennsylvania polls, Super PACs have pulled ad buys, and pundits suggest that the Keystone State is out of reach.

The roster of battleground states has not changed much, but one that Republicans had dearly hoped to put in play appears to have broken decisively: Pennsylvania. Mr. Romney spent time and money in the state, which voted Democratic in the last five presidential elections, but Republican strategists now say it seems out of reach. [New York Times]