With the Republican National Convention in the rear-view mirror and its Democratic counterpart now underway, political operatives on all sides in American politics are busy calculating the optimal strategies for capturing the White House on Nov. 5.The central battlefield for both parties over most of the past two decades has consistently been the so-called "Blue Wall" -- three industrial states in the Upper Middle West (Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) that have been essential to Democratic victories in presidential contests.Barack Obama carried all three twice and won election in 2008…READ FULL ARTICLE
