That's exactly what McCain aides said they intend to do after they announced the other day that the candidate was cutting his losses in Michigan. The state has been at the forefront of the economic downturn, and recent polls show Obama with a double-digit lead, despite millions in ad dollars spent by McCain.
McCain is putting more resources now into Indiana and Virginia, states that haven't gone Democratic in presidential elections since Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater lost them in 1964. Obama is targeting both states, which are considered toss-ups, along with six others that President Bush carried in 2004 but where polls show Obama either leading or running even: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada and Colorado.
Obama could lose as many as seven of those eight states and still win the presidency, according to the latest electoral map by RealClearPolitics.com, which classifies states according to the most recent public polls. The map shows Obama with 264 electoral votes, just six fewer than the total needed to win. McCain has 163.
With their man trailing, McCain aides are sending fresh signals that the race will soon get even more negative. Senior adviser Greg Strimple, a partner of top strategist Steve Schmidt, predicted that undecided voters will choose McCain once the campaign shows them "who Barack Obama really is."
McCain's first chance to do that is Tuesday's presidential debate, an event that features the senator's favorite format - town hall-style questions from ordinary voters.
The election is four weeks from Tuesday, and McCain is seeking advantage any place he can find it. He is sending campaign workers into Maine, where a single electoral vote might be peeled away.
Obama leads in statewide polls, but Maine awards one electoral vote to the winner in each of its congressional districts. More conservative northern Maine could favor McCain, though the state has never split its electoral votes since adopting that system in the 1970s.
McCain himself, appearing to relish his current plight, told Fox News the other day that he loved being the underdog and confidently forecast a close finish when the votes are counted.
"We're going to be up late on election night," he predicted.
