I've been checking out the Barack Obama Alaska home page a lot lately. Mostly out of curiosity, professional interest to see if they might leak any potential candidate visits and admittedly to cast an eye of skepticism on whether there is a snowball's chance that Obama could win the state.

I keep expecting to see activity on the state page to go dark despite the campaign's insistence it could be a battleground Nov. 4. But like each of the campaign's state pages, it's bustling.

There are five events across the state this week alone, and campaign volunteers have been out and about, including making an appearance at the -- not kidding -- the Annual Moose Dropping Festival in Talkeetna and the Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River:

Local Obama volunteers who didn't want to have to count on luck for this November's election were out in force this weekend at many of Alaska's finest festivals.  They know that this election is going to be won neighbor by neighbor, community by community.  And not just in certain communities in certain states.  This about your neighborhood and your state.  It's people like you that are standing up and volunteering, many for the very first time.

Team Obama has said they can put John McCain on the defensive in the south and even in Alaska, where Obama won the caucus on Feb. 5.

An Obama supporter posted this organizing event last week, one of many meetups for the state:

Do you know people living in Rural/Bush Alaska? Want to make sure that they are connected to this campaign? Join me at the Anchorage IBEW Hall to learn about the Rural/Bush Field Plan that I have been building for Obama's Campaign for Change. We need your input, and we need your help to effectively launch the Campaign for Change in every town & village in Rural/Bush Alaska.

Here's McCain's Alaska page, for comparison.

A Rasmussen poll of Alaska voters done last month had the race at McCain 45, Obama 41. Some McCain supporters think the Republican could boost that figure by choosing Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

— Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter,
The Washington Times

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