The headline of this article might seem a little strange given that Obama lost Medina County by 7184 votes. As far as the Obama campaign was concerned, though, it wasn't just the total spread between the candidates that mattered. What mattered was how the Obama campaign did in Ohio's counties compared to the Kerry campaign in 2004. Applying that standard, the Obama effort in Medina County paid off.
In 2004, George W. Bush got 48196 votes and John Kerry got 11924. The spread between Bush and Kerry was 11924. The total Medina County vote for the two candidates was 84468. In 2008 John McCain got 46829 and Barack Obama got 39645. As mentioned above, those figures meant that the spread between the two was 7184. The total Medina County vote for the two candidates was 86474.
This meant that on a higher total vote, Barack Obama reduced the GOP lead in Medina County by over 4000 votes. Medina County wasn't unique. In almost every "red" county, Barack Obama did better than John Kerry. This meant that when he got 60% of the vote in the eight largest Ohio counties, John McCain couldn't offset that vote with votes from smaller counties like Bush did in 2004. By fighting for every county, Barack Obama was able to carry Ohio.
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