22 August, 2008

Obama Suspends Advertising in 7 Battleground States

FOX News is reporting that Senator Barack Obama's (D-IL) campaign has "temporarily suspended" advertising in seven key battleground states.  The states are AK, GA, MT, NC, ND, FL, and VA. This is beyond perplexing. They have plenty of money and are within striking distance in several of these states. VA is as close as you can get to tied.

Aides to Obama told FOX News that the changes are related to the convention next week. They wouldn’t discuss the specifics of their ad strategy, but the Obama campaign insists that it has not pulled out of those states permanently, calling this a temporary suspension.

Perhaps they hope to ride the crest of the post-convention wave and return to advertising then? I don't know.  But VA and NC are very winnable for Obama, and MT, ND, and FL are definitely within reach.  Demographics in MT and FL strongly favor Senator John McCain (R-AZ), but polls in these states are exceptionally close.

Usually candidates only stop running ads in a state to save money when they've given up on taking the state.  That's obviously not the case for most of these.

I admit it. I'm baffled. I can think of no logical reason for doing this.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign is implying that he's giving up in those states. I find that hard to believe. It's too early in the campaign season and the states are too close.  They point to this chart for evidence.

The numbers are clear. In these states, where Obama has spent a considerable amount of money ($15 Million) and time, McCain's numbers have improved by an average of 4-points.

Uh huh. I'll stick with "baffling".

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