News organizations like CNN and MSNBC are great at finding talking heads to fill the airwaves with banter about the Presidential election. Over the past year, they've discussed Hillary's cleavage, Obama's wacky pastor, McCain's temper tantrums, Romney's flip flopping, Huckabee's weight, and so forth, until finally the primary races ended.
What they haven't done much of is describe in detail the battle ground states for the Presidential election, the various combinations for achieving Presidential status, and the outcome of previous elections. If you find this frustrating and want to get a jump on your Vegas bets for President, then check out the website 270toWin.com
270toWin.com provides an easy to use, interactive map of the U.S. that gives users the chance to find see how many states and which states a candidate needs to win to claim the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected President. Click on a state once and it turns red for republican, adds the state's electoral votes to a tally, and displays the distance to the 270 finish line. Click on a state twice and it turns blue for democrat and adds the state's electoral votes to the democratic tally at the bottom.
While it may sound a bit simplistic, this little map is highly addictive and can also display the election results for every Presidential election, beginning with the election of George Washington in 1789! And if that's not enough to quench your political thirst, users can also manipulate the map for the 2008 senate races for every state or watch a predicted simulation of the 2008 elections based upon the most recent polling data.