Is John McCain giving up on New Mexico? That’s what CNN’s John King is reporting, but there are lots of signs that McCain is still working hard to win the state’s five electoral votes, including a possible Saturday visit by the Republican presidential candidate to Mesilla.
This is what King reported today:
“With two weeks left, they are making the tough decisions inside the McCain camp. And they are beginning to look at some states that they thought they could win, and some states they even thought they had to win, and beginning to think that they are drifting away,” King said in a video report you can watch by clicking here. “Most people top in the McCain campaign now believe New Mexico and Iowa are gone, that Barack Obama will win New Mexico and Iowa. They are now off the dream list for the McCain campaign.”
“Most top people inside the McCain campaign,” King reported, also “think Colorado is gone.”
According to King, McCain plans to focus on winning Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and coming from behind to win Pennsylvania, where he is trailing significantly in the polls. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls in Pennsylvania has Obama leading by 11.7 percentage points.
But King’s report doesn’t match with the actions of the McCain campaign in New Mexico.
McCain sent Sarah Palin to Roswell on Sunday, the day before King’s video report. If McCain was giving up on New Mexico, why waste time and money to send his running mate here?
And it looks like McCain is coming to the Las Cruces area in the coming days. The Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting that the Mesilla Board of Trustees is scheduled to consider on Wednesday a request from the McCain campaign to use the town’s plaza for an event on Saturday. KVIA-TV in El Paso is quoting a McCain staffer as saying McCain will visit the Las Cruces area sometime in the next two weeks.
McCain staffers remain active in the state, and the campaign, according to McCain’s Web site, has 13 offices in New Mexico. To top it off, the candidate himself took time on Monday morning to give a phone interview to 770 KKOB-AM’s Peter St. Cyr. You can listen to it by clicking here.
It’s certainly true that Obama has become more aggressive in southern New Mexico, which is McCain country, in recent days as he seeks to make gains in GOP strongholds in several swing states. Obama sent Joe Biden to Mesilla last week and is sending Hillary Clinton to southern New Mexico on Saturday as he works to gain ground in the only congressional district in the state McCain is expected to win.
But McCain is trailing by a larger margin in Pennsylvania than he is in New Mexico. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls in the Land of Enchantment puts Obama ahead by 8.4 percentage points. Why pull out of New Mexico and stay in Pennsylvania if he’s trailing by a greater margin in Pennsylvania?
The McCain campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.
Is John McCain giving up on