Report: McCain Campaign Not Counting on Colorado

CNN is reporting that heading into the final two weeks of the election, the McCain campaign is close to conceding that Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado are beyond their reach. Two top strategists for the McCain campaign told CNN that the situation in those three states is looking increasingly bleak for the Republican candidate. This means that the McCain campaign is looking at an Electoral College strategy that has virtually no room for error and depends heavily on a dramatic comeback in Pennsylvania.

One reason the McCain campaign believe Colorado is slipping away is that the Obama campaign and its allies have a far superior ground/turnout operation, that has been built up ever since the primaries.

CNN reports that McCain's strategy seems to depend on holding a handful of states that went for George Bush in 2004. However a number of these states are now rated as tossups by CNN; these include Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Nevada. This strategy also depends on keeping Virginia, which CNN now considers leaning Democratic, in the GOP column.

McCain campaign communications director Jill Hazelbaker disputed the sources' accounts.
"We see the race tightening both internally and in public polling," she said. "We are within striking distance in the key battleground states we need to win."