Uncharacteristically low turnout for Barack Obama rally in Green Bay, Wisc.

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Hoping to shore up support in his suddenly undependable backyard, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama flew here Monday to talk about how he’d handle economic crises as president.

Recent polls have shown that Wisconsin — once pretty solidly in Obama’s column — is now a statistical dead heat between Obama and Republican John McCain.

“You all know that you hold this election in your hands,” Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat who said he worked on ethics legislation with Obama, told a crowd of about 6,000 cheering Obama fans in the arena next to Lambeau Field. “We just barely won this state for Al Gore in 2000 and we just barely won this state for John Kerry in 2004.”

The numbers in Wisconsin and Minnesota are getting close enough that the Obama campaign closed its 11 campaign offices in North Dakota and moved the 50 staffers there to these two states.

Just a week ago, John McCain and his vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin — who can bring out crowds the way Obama can — appeared in this same stadium, Resch Center, to a crowd of 10,000 fans. There were an uncharacteristic amount of empty orange seats for Obama’s rally.

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On August 22nd, the Obama campaign announced that they were pulling ads and reducing staff in 7 states. Among the seven were Alaska, Montana and North Dakota, with Montana being a state that Obama had almost seemed determined to maintain a competitive position in. Also included in the scale-backs were North Carolina and Georgia. Political analysts were doubtful that Obama could ever carry these states, but the Obama campaign had poured millions into the states in hopes that a high African-American turnout accompanied by Bob Barr’s third-party presence could make the states competitive. Last week, the Obama campaign announced that they were essentially abandoning their efforts in Georgia.

Most surprising in the announced cutbacks were two states, Florida and Virginia, both long considered essential battleground states. Although Obama is still spending money in both of these states, the campaign has admitted that their expenditures in these states are now about a quarter of what they spent during previous months.

In addition, during August, the Obama campaign pulled ads and closed offices in Washington, Mississippi, Alabama and Indiana. During August the Obama campaign was hopeful that they pull out a victory in Indiana, pumping millions into advertising in the weeks prior to the convention. But just days prior to the convention, they pulled ads and have yet to resume any ads at any level similar to that in early August.

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http://politicallydrunk.blogspot.com/2008/09/mccain-may-force-obama-to-resume-his-50.html

” Is it just me, or does it seem like there are a lot of polls recently which suggest Obama is rebounding, yet the anecdotal and other evidences “on the ground” suggest just the opposite? “

The MSM can’t stand to see him exposed for what he is:

A raw rookie - no real accomplishments

An appeaser - say whatever it takes, and make sure no one can really understand what it is you stand for.

A counter puncher - waits to see what’s happening and then responds

A poor judge of character - fill in the names ............

My read is people see this, and are learning more that MR Nice Guy is a thug, and the internals are showing the shine is off the star.

Only way to prop him up is to skew the daily polls to show him building and gaining.

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