Is McCain in Colorado or not?

Wow, I'm talkative today...

There have been a number of leaks from the McCain campaign this week that they plan on pulling out of Colorado. The New York Times says they've pulled their media buys for the rest of the campaign and won't be airing any advertisements there after this week.

Given the relatively few electoral college votes they'll get from Colorado and the NEED for their campaign to win two states out of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, this shouldn't come as a surprise. What is surprising is the attention they still seem to be applying to Pennsylvania. Recent polls have shown Obama up by as much as 15% there which will make it a very difficult place to win.

Al Giordano has an interesting theory behind the McCain campaign's actions though. He believes the departure from Colorado, and potentially other states Bush won in 2004, might be short-lived and that McCain will focus on showing an improvement in the polls in Pennsylvania, with that being the end goal. Not expecting to win it, but to make up a lot of ground in the polls in a short period of time.

This perceived momentum could be turned into the GOP talking point for several days to re-invigorate Republican voters who've become disillusioned over the last three weeks and are tuning out. At this point McCain can, for the umpteenth time, show his campaign has been re-invented and is on the right track.

It's a longshot and even Giordano says that for this to translate into a win McCain would still need some independent 527 to swoop in with an enormous ad buy much like the 'Swiftboat Veterans for Truth' did for Bush in 2004. This is unlikely given how little time there is left in the election. The first swiftboat ad was released the week after the 2003 DNC convention and weeks before the election. McCain's campaign doesn't have the cash on hand to do this itself and the RNC is already borrowing money to help congressional candidates that they didn't expect they'd have to support.

Link: The Field