Obama fans out, McCain stays put as strategists scour electoral map

The Democrat is targeting many GOP strongholds as the Republican focuses on typical battlegrounds.
By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 9, 2008

WASHINGTON — Entering the final stage of the race, the two presidential campaigns are plotting strategies that rely on vastly different readings of the electoral map, with Democrat Barack Obama competing hard in a large number of traditionally Republican states and John McCain, the GOP nominee, focusing on a small set of familiar battlegrounds.

A wild card in their calculations is McCain's surprise vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin.

Strategists in both parties say it is too early to assess whether the Alaska governor's conservative profile, which has energized core Republican voters, will put new states in play for the GOP ticket. A McCain campaign that has struggled with a lack of enthusiasm says it is already heartened by one post-Palin development: a wave of new GOP volunteers in Florida, Wisconsin and other crucial states.

National polls suggest the race is a tossup. In presidential contests, though, the trick is stringing together victories in enough states to clear a 270-vote majority in the electoral college.

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