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Thursday, October 2, 2008

McCain Pulling Out of Michigan

posted by on October 2 at 12:45 PM

This is huge.

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 AP confirms it here.

Go ahead, try to figure out how McCain realistically gets to 270 electoral college votes if he can’t win Michigan. (It’s possible, but based on recent polling it’s a difficult path.)

RSS icon Comments

1

"Two Republicans" isn't much of a source . . .

Posted by lilzilla | October 2, 2008 12:47 PM
2

Don't get excited until we see Obama on the Capital diaz on January 20 2009 taking the oath of office at 12:01pm EST.

And NEVER trust what the Republicans, er ah people who prefer the GOP, say.

Posted by Andrew | October 2, 2008 12:51 PM
3

As Bristol Palin has taught us, pulling out always works.

Posted by David Schmader | October 2, 2008 12:54 PM
4

This is on par with McCain suspending his campaign. He makes rash decisions that portray weakness rather than strength. Yes!

Posted by AK | October 2, 2008 12:54 PM
5

This was confirmed to me by a contact in the MI Republican party.

It certainly makes the numbers complicated for McCain. I wonder what he has up his sleeve. "Whitey" tape?

Posted by BN | October 2, 2008 12:55 PM
6

what a quitter. although, i would like to see more sources on this before i get all excited and stuff.

Posted by douglas | October 2, 2008 12:56 PM
7
Posted by mama4obama | October 2, 2008 1:00 PM
8

Hey! Stop linking to RCP - they lean republican and may be cooking their books. For polls, go to fivethirtyeight.com (and read their analysis of RCP's cherry-picking polls) or pollster.com (which includes all polls)

Posted by DCista | October 2, 2008 1:01 PM
9

Give McCain, Virginia, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Minnesota.

Posted by TheTruthHurts | October 2, 2008 1:08 PM
10

#8, you know 538 leans Democratic, right?

Posted by w7ngman | October 2, 2008 1:13 PM
11

Their commentary does but their poll data does not. RCP is manipulating the poll data, which is very different.

Posted by Fnarf | October 2, 2008 1:20 PM
12

I'd like to say something here (slightly off topic):

I have been questioning this whole thing. This whole republicans picking McCain, picking Palin, etc.

A friend of mine, around 2 years ago said that whoever was nominated for the GOP would basically be a fall guy. They didn't want to win this election. The next president has to deal with the war, and the economy and they don't want a republican to do it. American minds are very short term, and they'll blame any failings on the current president. The GOP could possibly skate by and blame the democrats.

I think that a couple things went wrong with their stratagy:

1) McCain did better than expected against the democrat (who they thought would be Hillary)
2) The economy melted sooner than expected
3) With the pick of Palin they knew it could go either way, and since they were polling close, they threw the dice.

All in all, I don't think the GOP actually wants to win. I really don't. I mean, they can't just fall over and be obvious about it, but really...what else explains the erratic behavior and choices?

And lastly, I am very excited that Obama will win. I am not going to be all doom and gloom about this anymore. I am stoked and I am confident! I think he can turn this country around and not fail like the GOP would like.

Posted by Original Monique | October 2, 2008 1:27 PM
13

I agree with Original Monique. The Republican National Committee isn't stupid; it's been very obvious for quite some time that the Republicans are in some deep crapola. What better strategy than to back off for 4 years to let the Democrats try and clean up the mess as well as give the Republicans time to reorganize. (Whether they can or not, is another question. They seem to have lost focus in recent years and keep on insisting on pandering to the far-right when their only hope lies in appealing to the conservative young, who tend to skew centrist if not slightly left on many social issues...)

The only problem is, I don't think they passed this strategy info along to McCain. I think he really wants to win, but he's getting little help from the Republican powers that be and he's flailing miserably.

Posted by michael strangeways | October 2, 2008 1:49 PM
14

We applaud Senator McCain's courageous and patriotic decision to put the well-being of Michigan ahead of his own pleasure.

Posted by east coaster | October 2, 2008 2:31 PM
15

I dunno, Mo. Can you ever see us taking that road? "Well, things are gonna suck for the next four years. Best let the Repugs cut their teeth on this problem."

They're wrong about the issues, and governance, but they're not dispassionate.

Posted by Big Sven | October 2, 2008 2:31 PM
16

@15, Some people here HAVE been taking that road.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | October 2, 2008 2:33 PM
17

12 and 13, I disagree. The Republicans DO want to win, and they want to win desperately. They chose McCain as their candidate because he, with his maverick reputation, is the only Republican in existence with even a prayer of winning the general election this year. His erratic behavior is because he knows his prospects are bleak and therefore is taking big risks, hoping that one will pay off big and hand him a victory. Needless to say, it hasn't been working. His bets have gone bad and made his prospects even worse.

Posted by east coaster | October 2, 2008 2:41 PM
18

Doesn't Michigan even get a reach-around?

Posted by COMTE | October 2, 2008 3:49 PM
19

Wahoo, best news I've heard all day!!!

Posted by Dianna | October 2, 2008 8:26 PM

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