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On the road with Barack and John

Dante Chinni

Posted: 05.22.2008 / 6:00 AM PDT

There are a lot of ways to get to know a candidate. There are position papers and advertisements. There are speeches, slogans, and websites. But to really understand what a candidate and a campaign are all about, it’s sometimes best to follow the jet fumes.

Now that the primary season is all but over, what do the travel schedules of the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, tell American voters about where they will be headed in the coming months?

So far, Senator Obama has been the busier candidate. Since Patchwork Nation started tracking candidate visits Feb. 1, he’s made 217 stops, while Senator McCain has made 132. That’s partly because the longer primary campaign has kept him on the road. The continuing primary race also means that Obama’s schedule has been prescribed – candidates usually have to go where the upcoming contest is.

But when the candidates’ itineraries are filtered through Patchwork Nation’s 11 community types, different patterns emerge between the two leading candidates.There are similarities, of course. Both men are spending a lot of time in the nation’s affluent suburbs (Monied ’Burbs) and in the big cities (Industrial Metropolis). Those community types rank No. 1 and No. 2 for visits for both candidates.

That’s hardly a shocker. Those areas have some distinct electoral advantages. They are densely populated, they have big media to help score coverage, and they have big money, which is always a plus for fundraising.

Both men have spent considerable time in the “Monied ’Burbs” – those places represent 32 percent of McCain’s visits and 31 percent of Obama’s. McCain, however, has spent more time in “Industrial Metropolis” communities (25 percent) than Obama has (16 percent).

Outside of those two groups, the differences between their schedules are stark.Obama loves college towns, as would be expected given his base of young enthusiastic supporters. He has logged 12 percent of his visits in “Campus and Careers” communities. McCain, on the other hand, isn’t likely to show up at the local student union anytime soon. He has visited only one such locale.

Obama has also spent more time in the economically stressed “Service Worker Centers” than McCain has. The economy is likely to be a topic that the Democrats will hit hard in the fall. Since February, 7 percent of Obama’s visits have been to these counties, compared with 2 percent of McCain’s.

Beyond the burbs and big cities, McCain has focused a lot of his time in “Boom Towns.” He’s logged 15 percent of his visits to these places.

As Patchwork Nation has noted, “Boom Towns” appear to present a good opportunity for McCain in the fall because these counties moved from the Democratic column in the 2000 presidential election to the Republican column in 2004. With their income higher than the median household average, “Boom Towns” may be less pessimistic about the economy.

Meanwhile, McCain has paid little attention to “Evangelical Epicenters,” which have high numbers of evangelical Christian voters who typically vote Republican. McCain’s trouble connecting with cultural conservatives and his desire to run a more centrist general-election campaign may explain why just 4 percent of his visits have been to these places.

Oddly, Obama has spent more time than McCain in these GOP strongholds. Perhaps because of the primary schedule, 6 percent of Obama’s trips have been to “Evangelical Epicenters.”

Of the 11 community types, “Tractor Country” remains the most ignored in the 2008 campaign visit log. Obama has been to one such community and McCain has yet to visit any since Feb. 1.

The question is how much the candidates’ travel patterns will change now that the general-election battle is more or less under way.