Out West, campaigns pursue the undecideds
ALBUQUERQUE - With only 10 days left to campaign and the number of toss-up states seeming to diminish, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama spent yesterday crisscrossing the Rocky Mountain West in pursuit of undecided voters.
For McCain, the task is more urgent, as he acknowledged in an appearance before a small crowd yesterday morning at the New Mexico state fairgrounds here.
"Ten days to go, we're a few points down, and the pundits, of course, as they have, four or five times, have written us off," McCain said.
"Senator Obama is measuring the drapes and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, and concede defeat in Iraq."
The candidates' focus on New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada - the three southwestern states that border McCain's home base, Arizona - underscores the changing electoral map in this presidential race, with Obama scheduled to campaign today in Colorado. Taken together, the electoral votes in the region could offset a loss for Obama in one of the larger battleground states like Florida or Ohio.
In the case of McCain, a come-from-behind win in one or more of the Mountain states could help make up for such places like Virginia, where his advisers believe he could fall short.
With Obama's position seeming to solidify elsewhere, he has the luxury of devoting more time to the Southwest, which polls also show starting to tilt his way. He and McCain have visited New Mexico six times during the campaign, and Obama was to hold a rally here last night after spending the day in Reno and Las Vegas, the same cities where the Republican vice presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, stumped last week.
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
They will appear together Wednesday in the perennial battleground state, Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Orlando sits in an important swing part of the state, where Clinton could help Obama among the white, working-class voters who so strongly supported his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton.
Bill Clinton has campaigned for Obama on his own, but the two have not appeared together at such an event.
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