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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (427274)	10/17/2008 1:04:18 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574028

McCain map strategy prompts head-scratching By DAVID PAUL KUHN \| 10/16/08 4:16 PM EDT According to most polls, Barack Obama holds a double-digit lead in Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, all states that many political strategists and pollsters believe are too far gone at this late date for John McCain to win. Still, McCain’s campaign soldiers on in those Democratic-leaning states, committing its most precious commodities — time and money — even as the Republican nominee struggles to lock up the red states he likely must sweep to win the presidency. It’s a head-scratching strategy that is leading even some Republicans to wonder why the McCain campaign hasn’t written off places such as Iowa and Pennsylvania and strategically retreated to ensure victory in more favorable red state terrain — such as Virginia and North Carolina — that it absolutely cannot afford to lose. “It seems to me the world has changed, but they are living in an old construct. You pull out of Michigan and you stay in Pennsylvania. You stay in Iowa?” asked Tony Fabrizio, the pollster for 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole. “Look, I’ve been in their position. I know what it’s like when the world comes crashing down around you in a presidential race,” Fabrizio continued. “I used to have a saying in 1996 that is absolutely applicable to these guys in 2008: Denial is not a river in Africa." But, he noted, “on what planet do you not adjust to protect the states that you absolutely need to win to get to 270?” Iowa is perhaps the most often cited example of McCain’s seemingly misplaced priorities. According to Pollster.com, McCain hasn’t led Obama in a single Iowa poll in 2008; the closest he came was a 45-percent-to-45-percent tie in mid-September before the market meltdown. In a variety of polls taken since then, Obama’s lead has grown to where the RealClearPolitics polling average pegs the gap at 12 points. Still, through late September, McCain continued to buy ads on TV stations across the state and has campaigned in Iowa, both with and without running mate Sarah Palin, as recently as Saturday. “It does not make much sense to me,” said J. Ann Selzer, who conducts the Des Moines Register's poll. “When we saw what the poll numbers were [in Iowa], we thought it’s no longer a tossup state. And no one thinks it is, except the McCain campaign. It just feels, to me, undisciplined.” McCain’s recent schedule, in fact, reads like a tour through Obama country, with visits in state after state where polls reflect double-digit polling leads for the Democratic nominee. Last Thursday and Friday, McCain was campaigning in Wisconsin, where the latest Quinnipiac University poll has Obama up 17 points. On Saturday, McCain was stumping in Iowa, where the latest RCP average has him down 13 points. politico.com