Look Where They are Campaigning

I learned that a long time ago when I was a volunteer for John Anderson's presidential campaign. The important thing is to look where the candidates are spending their time. Both candidates were in Colorado yesterday. That speaks volumes of where the campaign is.

Here's a little historical perspective on Colorado. Colorado went for the Democrats at the presidential level once in the past 40 years. The year it went Democrat was 1992 and the only reason was that Ross Perot was on the ballot.

So McCain is trying to shore up his base. Obama sees a chance to pick off another red state. This from a story in the Post:

The conservative forces backing McCain here are energized, and he counts on a get-out-the-vote operation that historically has ranked as one of the Republican Party's top three or four in the nation. But McCain faces an opponent who, with a huge financial war chest, an army of volunteer activists and an aggressive game plan, has put together a campaign that Democratic officials in the state say is superior to anything they have ever seen on their side.

The polls show that Obama is ahead in Colorado. Having a strong organization is very important. The Obama campaign has done this in state after state. Virginia is a good example. Obama is also helped in Virginia because of the Senate race where they Democrat is ahead by as much as 30% over the Republican.

McCain tried venturing into a blue state earlier this week. He made several stops in Pennsylvania. Most of the stories I read or heard on the news were surprised at this move because the poll numbers are not in McCain's favor there.

But, if McCain has any chance of winning, he has to turn a blue state red. Because Obama is having way too much success at turning red states blue or at least putting red states into play. By doing that Obama is forcing McCain to spend precious time and resources in states that should already been in the Republican column. The reason for Pennsylvania as put by one reporter was that the McCain campaign was running out of potential states where they had any chance of mounting a challenge to Obama.

So as we reach the final week of the campaign watch where the candidates are going. That speaks more about the state of the race that just about anything.