A handful, perhaps up to twenty of states are competitive this election cycle. Any state where the polls show the candidates to be within 5% of each other will definitely be contested.

Seven states are really close. Ohio(20), Michigan(17), Missouri(11), New Mexico(5), Nevada(5), Virginia(13) and New Hampshire(4) are within 5% in May 2008.

Six states are slanted toward Obama but could be Bradley Effect states. These include Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. African American voters make up less than ten percnet of the voters in each of these states, with all but Pennsylvania under 5%.

Thirty-seven states are not so close, but you can expect some fireworks in states with less than a 10% spread. Looking at states where the candidates hold more than a 5% lead, McCain has 216 likely electoral votes and Obama has 247.

270 wins the election so Obama is only 23 short of a win. McCain needs to win five or six out of the seven battleground states to lock in a victory. This fact may set strategy for the opposing camps.

Obama needs to focus on just a few states while avoiding a major blunder. Look for lots of rallies and local events using his stock stump speeches.

McCain needs to find a way to destroy Obama's credibility across the board. He'll need to take on a riskier attack style approach. Republican 527 groups could win this election for him if he can just avoid losing it with personal gaffes.

This New Yorker video lays it out in an entertaining way.

USA Today gives you a map where you can see the strategy emerge.

Pollster.com tracks the polls state by state which is the only thing that matters.