Return to blue: Minnesota slips from battleground line

In today’s edition of “The Line,” Chris Cillizza ranks the 10 state’s most likely to switch parties in the presidential election. Conspicuously missing from the list: Minnesota. When Cillizza last weighted battleground states, Minnesota clocked in at seventh. At the time he noted that the Northstar state, despite strong Democratic trends in recent elections, was ranked so high because he viewed Gov. Tim Pawlenty as the odds-on favorite to be John McCain’s running mate. The Washington Post scribe provides no explanation for dropping Minnesota. But does Cillizza’s re-assessment of the state mean a similar revision of Pawlenty’s veep prospects?