OBAMA PLANS NATIONAL CAMPAIGN - INCLUDING ON GOP TURF

NYTIMES:

Senator Barack Obama’s general election plan calls for broadening the electoral map by challenging Senator John McCain in typically Republican states — from North Carolina to Missouri to Montana — as Mr. Obama seeks to take advantage of voter turnout operations built in nearly 50 states in the long Democratic nomination battle, aides said.

...Still, the Republican Party has a history of out-hustling and out-organizing the Democratic Party in national elections. The question is whether the more organically grown game plans that carried Mr. Obama to victory in Democratic primaries and caucuses can match the well-oiled organizations Republicans have put together.

Mr. McCain’s advisers dismissed the Obama campaign claims as bluster. “We’re confident about our ability to win those states,” said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain.

... Media strategists in both parties said that Mr. Obama’s campaign would have enough money to run a break-all-records advertising campaign. In theory, at least, he will have enough money to run one set of prime-time national advertisements on broadcast television, and a concurrent and harder-hitting campaign against Mr. McCain in closely contested states.

OBAMA'S TURNOUT OP AND HIS MONEY ADVANTAGE MAKE THIS THREAT REAL.


HE WANTS TO FORCE THE GOP TO FIGHT ON ITS OWN TURF - DIVERTING MONEY FROM THE TRADITIONAL BATTLEGROUND STATES .

• IMHO: THIS MAKES WEBB AND RIDGE MORE LIKELY AS VEEPS.
• AT RIGHT IS THE BUSH-KERRY MAP (2004).
• MCCAIN WILL NOT GET FEWER DEM VOTES THAN BUSH - SO HE'LL DO BETTER IN SEVERAL STATES.
• I THINK MCCAIN MIGHT LOSE VA AND IA - BUT PICK UP PA, MN, MI AND NH.

FULL ROUND UP ON THIS ISSUE HERE AT MEMORANDUM.