Roanoke, Va. - A new ABC News / Washington Post poll released Monday puts Barack Obama (web|news|bio) ten points ahead of his Republican rival John McCain (web|news|bio) among likely voters, and the battleground state of Virginia has become a hotly-contested territory as the race there remains close.

"I feel like the election's been going on forever," said Virginia voter Mary Paxton. "I love having my vote count for the first time I've lived here -- 30 years."

Paxton's vote, along with those all over Virginia, is considered genuinely up for grabs for the first time in decades. A Republican stronghold since 1968, the latest polls here in Virginia show Barack Obama leading, sometimes by a considerable margin. But the political analysts lay out their electoral map strategies and say it is John McCain who absolutely needs Virginia to make it to the White House.

Today, Obama is in Ohio and is expected to reveal his plan for dealing with the economic crisis. Ohio has a long tradition as a swing state, and a tradition of siding with the winner.

Recent polls show McCain trailing by even more in Virginia than he is in Ohio, making it all the more likely that Virginia voters will remain in both campaign's crosshairs.

John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin will be in Virginia Beach today after visiting his Arlington headquarters Sunday. McCain was thought to be rolling out a new blueprint for jump-starting the economy at some point this week, but McCain spokespeople have said that announcement will be delayed.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says McCain is considering cutting taxes on investments, including lowering the capital gains tax.

But a campaign spokesman says the GOP candidate won't be announcing any specific new proposals, at least not today. He hints, however, there may be some further plans later this week "as economic news and conditions change."

When asked about any new proposals yesterday, McCain didn't say. He already has laid out some plans to address the meltdown, including a $300 billion proposal for the government to buy distressed mortgages and renegotiate them at a reduced price. 

Meanwhile, as Obama campaigned in Ohio, he sent some major players to Virginia to campaign for him: former president Bill Clinton has been in the Old Dominion since Sunday.

President Bush (web|news|bio) 's response to the nation's financial crisis is helping Barack Obama's presidential campaign, former President Bill Clinton said Sunday.

"The administration keeps plowing an Uzi's worth of bullets into the McCain-Palin ticket every time they have something else go wrong," Clinton told an evening rally of several hundred people gathered at Roanoke's downtown Market Square. "It's good politics for us."

Clinton praised the Democratic candidate's plan for financial recovery and his proposals for health care reform, an issue that he said nobody has taken on "since Hillary and I got our brains beat out trying to fix."

Clinton said Obama is positioned to be able to make more changes in the way the nation is run than he was able to as president.

"When I was elected, people blamed my predecessor but not the ideas on which their whole deal was founded," Clinton said. Now, he said, people see that the country "in a ditch" after having both a Republican president and a GOP majority in Congress.

Clinton was scheduled to address a rally later Sunday in Richmond. This was the former president's first visit to Virginia in support of Obama, who trounced Hillary Clinton in the state's presidential primary.

Clinton, who campaigned hard for his wife during the Democratic primaries, began stumping for Obama only recently. He headlined two events in Florida earlier this month, and has appeared at fundraisers in that state and in Georgia.