Guardian: Mitt Romney's swing-state ad spend looks like a loser's strategy
After a week when the American media gave saturation coverage to the Democratic national convention, Mitt Romney has responded by buying his own air time. His latest television ad buys, totalling $4.5m, is targeted at the states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. No one can fault Romney for going on the air in these states. They are all winnable for either candidate, and they were won by George W Bush at least once.
The issue is that Romney is leaving himself with little room for error. If you assign the states to the candidate who is leading in the polls outside the ad states, you get a map that looks like this.
If we assign Nevada, where Romney hasn't led in a poll since April 2011, to President Obama, the math becomes even less forgiving for the Republican nominee. Now, Romney must win both Florida and Ohio. And that leaves Romney with only five ways to thread the needle.
Such a game-plan is nothing new in presidential campaigns. Michael Dukakis tried the "18-state strategy" in 1988. Dukakis, of course, didn't come close, and lost 40 states. John Kerry's swing-state effort in 2004 is another analogue. Kerry needed to win two of the three upper midwest states (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin), plus Pennsylvania and either Florida or Ohio. Kerry managed parts one and two, to get to 252 electoral votes, but failed to take either Florida or Ohio.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/07/mitt-romney-swing-state-ad-spend
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