Maybe Obama's media gurus read all the free advice I have for them here on the blog. Or maybe they're just finally catching on to the realities of this election. In either case, Obama staffers sacked their 50-state strategy days before the Denver convention and have begun focusing on the states they need to win.
Barack Obama's presidential campaign has put the brakes on ads that were running in seven states carried by the GOP in the 2004 presidential election, FOX News has learned.
Of the seven states - including Alaska, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota - Florida and Virginia are considered key battlegrounds this year. Obama's decision to stop advertising in those states is raising eyebrows.
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.
Obama's spinmeisters may say it's "temporary" but look for the Obama camp to start firing paid staffers in Texas and Utah in the coming weeks, as the junior senator from Illinois finally comes to grips with the fact that the election is close and he may not win. The 50-state strategy his campaign devised will go down, next to Giuliani's late-state strategy, in the history of dumb ideas. Unfortunately, Obama realized the mistake long before it cost him the election. It has cost him some serious cash though. In the seven states his campaign has stopped advertising, Obama spent more than $15 million in the last three months and has seen his numbers fall or stay the same in all of them.
