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In 2004, Ohio was the political equivalent of the favored son, lavished with as much love as both presidential candidates could give.

This year, the family has grown.

Thanks to an aggressive ground organization and nearly obscene levels of fundraising, Democrat Barack Obama has turned traditional Republican strongholds such as Missouri, Colorado and Virginia into battlegrounds.

But that hasn't seemed to have diminished the candidates' focus on our fair state. If Ohio is no longer THE favored son, we've at least got a privileged place among our swing state siblings.

Consider the political star power we've received just in the last week:

• John McCain kicked off an eight-city, two-day bus trip through northern Ohio on Thursday that culminated in Columbus on Friday with an appearance from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• His running mate, Sarah Palin, was in Ohio Wednesday and is scheduled to make another four stops today.

• Barack Obama was here, too, beginning his "closing argument" to the nation Monday in Canton. He'll be back today as well, with scheduled stops in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, where Bruce Springsteen is planning to play an acoustic set.

• And Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, spent Friday afternoon in Dayton as part of a whirlwind tour of the state that lasted through Saturday.

Throw in a couple of Clintons, a Rock the Vote bus tour that brought actors Laura Dern and Ben Stiller and rockers Sheryl Crow and the Beastie Boys into Dayton Thursday and musicians Hank Williams Jr. and Jay-Z elsewhere in the state, and you've got yourself a virtual tourism industry made wholly of people wanting Ohioans to vote a certain way.

The Miami Valley's place in the story of the 2008 campaign was secured on Aug. 29, when John McCain chose the Ervin J. Nutter Center to unveil his surprise choice of Palin, then the obscure governor of Alaska, as his running mate.

But Dayton has had other moments in the sun this campaign season. ABC's "World News With Charles Gibson" broadcast from Dayton on Oct. 6 and "Good Morning America" was back last week, doing its Thursday show from the Golden Nugget Pancake House in Kettering. The venue Obama picked for a speech on Oct. 9 is quickly becoming a Dayton icon: Fifth Third Field.

Nobody can accuse either candidate of ignoring Ohio. By the time Palin walks off the stage in Clermont County tonight, the two Republican candidates will have made 16 separate Ohio campaign stops in four days, and Obama/Biden aren't far off that total. One of them was traipsing around the state on three of those four days.

The Republican ticket has spent slightly more time here than the Democrats, according to a Dayton Daily News tally. Since Sen. Hillary Clinton withdrew from the Democratic race on June 7, McCain and/or Palin have spent 31 days campaigning in Ohio compared to 22 for Obama/Biden. All told, the two campaigns have made more than 100 stops in Ohio.

John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said by competing in traditional Republican strongholds, Obama has opened up a few different paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

If he wins in North Carolina, with its 15 electoral votes, and in Virginia, with its 13, he could win without Ohio's 20 votes, Green said. Virginia hasn't backed a Democrat for president in 44 years, but this year the state is competitive.

Another formula that almost would make up for Ohio would be Colorado with nine electoral votes, Nevada with five and New Mexico with five. George W. Bush took all three states in 2004, but polls show Obama leading in each one.

In Ohio, most polls show the race close to a toss-up, a razor-thin margin that is evidenced by the number of campaign ads being aired here. Between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4 alone, Obama spent $2.2 million in advertising in Ohio, topping all other states, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project. McCain bought $1.7 million worth of ads during that same period.

Both candidates have also managed to tap Ohioans for millions of dollars. Ohioans have given McCain $5.2 million so far, and Obama $4.3 million, according to the Center for American Politics.

All this attention makes 25-year-old Gregory Durant a little wistful.

Now a music teacher in Queens, N.Y., Durant, a Bellefontaine native, misses all the attention that swing states get.

"At this point four years ago, I was excited because my vote made a big difference living in Ohio," said Durant.

But in Ohio, most people are like Don Paul, 67, a retired librarian from Kettering who says he's ready for the robo calls and the campaign ads to be over.

"But I kind of feel sorry for the states that don't get any visits at all," he said.

And then there is Jennifer Kavouris, 42, an Obama supporter from West Carrollton, who said she'll be sad to see this campaign season end.

"Living in Ohio in October," she said, "you always feel special."