The Arizona Republic has an article on two McCain pickups to run his Arizona operations. Obviously McCain is the heavy favorite in the Grand Canyon state, as politics, like sports, leads the majority of people to unquestioningly root for the home team out of emotion.

However, if McCain doesn't win big in AZ, it will hurt him. And if he were to lose Arizona, he would be done.

Also of note, two states that helped give McCain great momentum in 2000 against Bush--New Hampshire and Michigan--may not have as much of a boost for him this time around for two reasons.

First, McCain is considered the frontrunner by most, eliminating the appeal of a populist campaign against the big, bad, rich guy who is supposed to win. Second, both states have an open primary, allowing independents to vote in either party's election which greatly helped McCain last time around. This time, however, there will be much more interest in the Democrat's primary (much more of a choice than just Gore and Bradley), drawing away independents from McCain to someone like Barack Obama or John Edwards. And as McCain continues to attempt to appeal to conservatives to win the GOP nomination, he'll alienate independents, further reducing his main appeal to Republicans: his electability in a general election.

Of course, Romney has a much more solid support base in Michigan (because of his father) and New Hampshire (because of its closeness to MA and he also owns a vacation home there), and would benefit more than anyone from a poorer showing by McCain.