That lesson is not lost on Brookover's fellow Republicans. An adviser to the McCain campaign said, "Look at where Hillary did well: From the northeastern corner down the border where West Virginia juts up into the state. Those were her 70 percent margins.... Those voters are not entirely convinced that Barack Obama is their candidate."

Obama is clearly aware of these challenges. He recently made a high-profile visit to Zanesville--a town of just over 25,000 people in Muskingum County, 50 miles east of Columbus, the state capital. Zanesville was not kind to Kerry. Bush won more than 57 percent of its votes in 2004. But Democrat Brown won there in his Senate race two years later, attracting more than 55 percent of the vote.

"Although it is in eastern Ohio, Zanesville is considered part of Appalachia. It's not a community that Democrats in the past would have spent early time on," Redfern said, clearly excited that Obama seems to understand the need to make inroads in communities that Republicans have long dominated.

The senator from Illinois has a not-so-secret weapon in his arsenal: Gov. Strickland, who steered Clinton's Ohio campaign during the primary, has enthusiastically endorsed Obama. The governor, an ordained Methodist minister who easily connects with rural voters, carried 72 of Ohio's 88 counties, compared with Kerry's 16. Today, Strickland is making his formidable political organization available to Obama.

Aaron Pickrell, who as campaign manager helped guide Strickland to his lopsided win two years ago, has signed up to run Obama's Buckeye campaign. In a conference call with reporters last month, Strickland predicted that Obama will win Ohio because the race will revolve around bread-and-butter economic issues--the same ones that Strickland championed in becoming the first Democrat elected governor in 20 years.

"Senator Obama is doing what he needs to do. What is that? He's talking about the economy," Strickland said. "I am going to be excited to accompany Senator Obama to the southern and southeastern and small towns of Ohio because when you compare his economic [agenda] with Senator McCain, I believe the people of Ohio will vote their own economic interests and will support him."

Strickland all but dismissed McCain's recent trip to Youngstown, about 75 miles southeast of Cleveland in Mahoning County. The county has lost more than 18,000 factory jobs in the past decade. "I am puzzled," Strickland said. "I have represented that county when I was in the Congress. And I cannot imagine why Senator McCain could hope to gain political advantage [there]. It is an area that has been devastated by the Bush administration's policies and ... I really see nothing in Senator McCain's economic policies that would have an appeal to the folks in these distressed Ohio communities."

Indeed, Kerry carried more than 62 percent of Youngstown's votes, and Strickland prevailed with nearly 76 percent. "In spite of Senator McCain's personal appeal as a war hero ... I think the fact that he is, for all practical purposes, committed to pursuing George Bush's economic policies will keep him from gaining any significant foothold in Ohio," Strickland said.

But a senior McCain campaign adviser countered that the Arizonan "is a different kind of Republican.... He looked people in the eye and promised to work with them. He talked about [policies] to retain jobs and bring new jobs to the area. He viscerally understands that people are hurting."

Alex Triantafilou, Hamilton County's Republican Party chairman, agreed. "I reject what the governor said about Senator McCain's policies," he said. "The last thing we need is an increase in taxes--John McCain has the right economic policy.... When voters stop and think that Obama has a more liberal voting record than Ted Kennedy--that will not sell well."

Even so, as long as the presidential debate centers on Ohio's struggling economy, Democrats are convinced that they have the advantage. Social issues are not driving the electorate this year, they note. And they won't have to contend with anything on the Ohio ballot like the anti-gay-marriage amendment that helped Bush by boosting evangelical turnout in 2004.

Ruvolo, who was Sen. Clinton's delegate coordinator in Ohio, said that Obama should make the most of these dynamics. "He has to concentrate on getting those folks back voting their pocketbooks, as opposed to values, security, or the other issues that George Bush was able to exploit."

Several Democratic strategists urged Obama to engage in retail politicking in Ohio. David Wilhelm, campaign manager for Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton in 1992, sent Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, on a bus trip into the heartland to connect with swing voters.

"Whether [Obama] ultimately needs to get on a bus or not--frankly, it wouldn't be a bad idea--but the main thing about the bus trip is where that first bus trip went," Wilhelm said, noting that it traversed eastern, central, and southwestern Ohio. "[Bill] Clinton laid a marker down in 1992 that he was going to compete on turf that the Republicans felt was their own."

Democratic strategist Austin agrees. "Ohio is a place where you need to spend time, and Obama needs to spend even more time, because he didn't spend much time here in the primary," he said. "As we say in Ohio, 'When you go duck hunting, you go where the ducks are.' He has to go to those places--the places that John Kerry never went."

This is the fourth in a series of articles taking a close look at swing states likely to determine the outcome of this year's presidential election. Next week: Colorado.