Obama-Biden Ticket: Will It Change Red Georgia Blue?

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Barack Obama's campaign is extending its presence in Georgia, opening 15 additional offices Saturday. But in a historically Republican state, what implications will the Obama-Biden ticket have in Georgia?

Sarah Ward is adamant, passionate about her vote for Barack Obama. Her friend Cat Lyons favors Obama, but is still open to John McCain. Both their eyes are on the man at the top of the ticket -- the man next to him, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, of little sway to their votes.

"I don't really care who is standing next to him," said Lyons, a zookeeper.

"I'm not of one opinion or the other of Biden," said Ward, who is a librarian and self-proclaimed "political junkie."

Emory University Political Science Associate Professor Andra Gillespie compares Obama's decision to choose Biden to that of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson -- experience to temper youth. Biden has 35 years of experience in Congress, a strong foreign policy position as Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. Biden's strengths, Obama's weaknesses.

"He is saying to the party establishment that he understands their concerns, that he is sympathetic to them, so he picks someone who is going to be a consensus candidate across the board," said Gillespie.

Biden is Irish-Catholic, his blue collar background possibly a draw for swing votes. Then, there are the electoral votes from Delaware, and more importantly, his birthplace and key battleground state Pennsylvania. But all of that, Gillespie says will likely do very little to capture votes in a Republican stronghold like Georgia.

"Generally, the vice presidential selection doesn't have a whole lot of impact on the people's perception of the candidate or their probability of voting for one candidate or the other," said Gillespie, who is currently researching political mobilization and race.

Obama's campaign opened 15 more offices in Georgia, bringing the total to 27 -- in an attempt to hold off the conservative majority by mobilizing the youth and minority vote.

Executive Director of Georgia's Republican Party Ben Fry said "he's desperate. He knows he can't win Georgia with the record like he has and what he is talking about on the campaign trail. And so he's got to desperate things, and that's what we are seeing here. The fact is Georgia is not an Obama state. We're a state of common sense, main street, mainstream values."

"There is little suggest at this point Georgia is actually going to swing Democratic. So if Barack Obama wins by a landslide, then I expect Georgia to be a part of that landslide. Other than that I think this state is McCain's to lose," said Gillespie.

Obama's concentration of campaign offices in a staunch Republican state is an unusual move compared to other presidential elections. Gillespie and other analysts say it is, in part, empty political posturing, a ploy to deplete and distract Mccain's campaign from swing states.

"That forces McCain to divert resources to Georgia. That means if he has to send time campaigning in Georgia, putting up adds in Georgia and spends money here that means that's money he can't spend in a battleground state," said Gillespie. "From a strategic point, wasting McCain's time in a state like this keeps him from focusing his attention in Pennsylvania or Michigan or Ohio or other historically competitive states."

"We're not a diversion. Every vote in this county counts the same as in the state. So every one we get is one less we need to get somewhere else," said Jeff Jackness, who is an Obama campaign volunteer at the Forsyth office.