Wednesday, October 22, 2008

McCain cuts advertising spending in Colorado

The official line is that John McCain is not giving up on Colorado but as I've stated previously what the McCain campaign says may very well be betrayed by what the McCain campaign does. The New York Times "Caucus" blog reports,

Democrats who monitor advertising spending now put at five the number of states where Senator John McCain is reducing his advertising – New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Colorado, Maine and Minnesota.

In essence, Mr. McCain’s campaign has decided to spread the advertising time he bought for the upcoming week in those states over the next two final weeks.

While station managers in the affected states said they were not ruling out the possibility that Mr. McCain would pump money back in before election day, on Nov. 4, the move represents a stark reordering of priorities.


As the saying goes, actions speak louder the words. McCain flaks can tell us over and over again that they have not given up on Colorado but their actions betray them. Slashing your advertising in a state where you have little ground presence is not a move that a competitive campaign would make. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In all seriousness can you remember a campaign run as poorly as the one McCain has put together for this election cycle?

I'll be the first to concede that the McCain camp was in a tough spot coming out of the primary season and that the economic crisis was truly damaging but I have to believe that sheer ineptitude has played a critical role in what would seem to be an impending landslide for Obama.

I can't think of one aspect of the campaign that they haven't managed to bungle in the process. Their handling of the VP selection process was haphazard at best and they've paid dearly for the steady trickle of Palin gaffes which resulted from a non-existent vetting process. Similarly their inability to come up with a cohesive message has left many has given voters the impression that he is at best erratic and at worst completely out to lunch. Even their electoral strategy is a complete joke.

In essence they've decided to go dark in Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico and New Hampshire and instead focus their energy on winning Pennsylvania. The only problem with this gambit is that Obama is holding a ten point lead (which has been widening) and the election is two weeks away.

If I didn't know any better I'd swear a fix was in.

Anonymous said...

I don't think they are completely throwing in the provebial towel just yet, as demonstrated by the McCain/Palin visits to Colorado this week. Or do you think that is more for palliative purposes? It sounds like they might just be using their limited resources to go full-bore at Pennsylvania, while scaling back elsewhere.

-Matt S