Thursday, October 02, 2008

McCain Pulling Out Of Michigan

Big news out of the McCain camp today (h/t co-blogger Adam):

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.

The probably got a look at this:

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Michigan shows Sen. Barack Obama has opened up a ten point lead over Sen. John McCain, 51% to 41%.

This is in a state that Kerry won in 2004, but just barely, and in which Obama held only a one point lead immediately following the Republican convention. But the dramatic shift in the polls over the last couple of weeks has essentially robbed the McCain campaign of any chance they had at flipping the state, and with their troubles in other key battleground states I think they realize that they have to devote resources to protecting their leads or challenging Obama's in those states.

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