Nevada snapshot

Early voting has started in Nevada, a key battleground state where Democrat Barack Obama has been leading in the polls. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports about 25 percent of the state’s 1.2 million active voters already has cast ballots. The interesting thing is that exit polling of more than 7,000 early voters showed only a narrow lead for Obama, 50 to 48 percent, over John McCain. Indeed, conventional wisdom had it that Obama would benefit greatly from early voters, reflecting assumptions by pollsters, pundits and others that his candidacy has generated greater enthusiasm. Maybe that will ultimately prove true in Nevada. But not at this point.