McCain Rethinking the Electoral Math
Posted by: Will Curl in Politics, tags: 2008 Election, electoral vote, John McCain, Maine, MichiganIt may be too early to stick a fork in John McCain, but given the latest whisperings, one may perhaps be forgiven for at least picking out the cutlery:
John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.
McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.
Not just Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida, but also apparently Maine:
Yesterday, Republican John McCain’s campaign announced that it had begun withdrawing from Michigan, but would start committing resources to Maine, where strategists say he has been buoyed by the addition of Sarah Palin to his ticket.
Maine is one of two states that splits its electoral votes by Congressional district (Nebraska being the other); McCain apparently hopes to win in Maine’s 2nd District, thereby peeling off an additional electoral vote.
Why? Well, it’s either a head-fake or an act of desperation, and given the current state of the electoral map, I’m guessing desperation; besides, McCain’s campaign has a history of Hail Mary passes and a history of not being nearly clever enough to pull off head-fakes.
The map does indeed look grim for the Reps at the moment; they’re defending states they normally have in the bag by this time (VA, NC, etc.), which means they can’t go on the offensive in states they were hoping to swing. However, while there may indeed be some delightful schadenfreude to be had, a month is a long, long time…




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