Another day, another campaign conference call. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, along with top field aides Jen O'Malley and Jon Carson tell the press corps what's up. This mainly consisted of emphasizing that they expect to polls to tighten in the next 11 days, a tone struck no doubt to dampen any emerging McCain comeback narratives. Plouffe also offered a tiered breakdown of battleground states, with a group of likely pickups, which includes Virginia, Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado; then a second group consisting of Nevada, Florida, Ohio, all Bush states that the campaign thinks are leaning their way; a third tier of Indiana and North Carolina where early organization efforts may pay off, and then what I am terming a "landslide tier" of Georgia, North Dakota and West Virginia (I'd add Montana) where we've seen the occasional Obama lead or tie. If these states go, it's going to be a blow-out. But Obama doesn't need to win all of these states to win, giving him a lot of flexibility for getting to the magic number in the electoral college.
Two other notes: Plouffe doesn't think McCain will win Pennsylvania, where the senator's campaign seems to be going all in, and he said he's fine with the Republican's decision to close on a tax argument. Any other time I'd think it was spin, but as we've seen, Obama is winning on taxes:
In the latest Washington Post-ABC tracking poll, Obama maintains a 51 to 43 percent lead over McCain on handling taxes. Obama's edge on this question in the Post poll is identical to the one President Bush held over John F. Kerry at this stage four years ago.
Well, ain't that something.
--Tim Fernholz
*I have wanted to use this headline all cycle, and I'm running out of time.
