Look. From now until November 4th, for us it's all about GOTV, going door to door and making phone calls. It's all about ground game. It's all about getting folks to the polls and making sure that things go as smoothly as possible at the polling places. It's about driving the elderly to the polls and it's about reporting suspicious behavior or even voter supression efforts at the polls. That's our job.
But - Obama's job is about making headlines. His job is to control the news cycles 24 / 7 and drowning out any McPalin mudslinging with headlines of Hope and Change. It would be easy to make speeches in friendly states and cities in places like Miami or Cleveland or St. Louis or Philadelphia. But Obama's already done that. The GOTV in those places is as good as can be.
How to make real headlines - draw 30,000 at a ball park in Phoenix or at U of A in Tucson. Take it to McCain's home court -
There are plenty of good reasons why:
- It actually looks like a statistical tie in AZ right now. Obama is within 2 to 3 percentage points. Anyone would campaign in a state where things are that close. So on that note, he has a genuinely solid strategic, statistical reason to go there.
- Going to McCain's home state creates tons and tons of media coverage. It would be basically unprecedented. It's been a Red state for a pretty long time now. It's McCain's backyard. But it proves that Obama truly is not afraid of putting his money where his mouth is - being the President of the United States and not Red States or Blue States.
- McCain may be forced to go back to AZ and answer Obama's visit with a defensive visit. This would take McCain out of Ohio or Florida for the better part of a full day and make him look weak.
- Obama could appear with Janet Napolitano - who is the very popular Democratic Governor of AZ. He could appear with prominent leaders in the Latino Community. It's a natural fit given the progress he's made in New Mexico and Colorado.
- From there he could do a 1 to 2 day Red state tour. He could then visit - and for the same reasons - Montana, North Dakota, and maybe Nebraska, shooting for one of Nebraska's EVs since NE splits its EVs.
This would make more headlines than another rally in small town Ohio or medium sized town Florida.
While he's in the Red states, he could send the Clintons to Ohio and the Bidens to Florida and Michelle to Missouri.
He wouldn't miss a beat.
Think about it... How would it look if Obama drew 30,000 to a rally at ASU? C'mon people.