WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain conceded battleground Michigan to the Democrats on Thursday, GOP officials said, a major retreat as he struggles to regain his footing in a campaign increasingly dominated by economic issues.
These officials said McCain was pulling staff and advertising out of the economically distressed Midwestern state. He also canceled a visit slated for next week. Michigan, with 17 electoral votes, voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, but Republicans had poured money into an effort to try to place it in their column this year.
The decision marked the first time either McCain or his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, has tacitly conceded a traditional battleground state in a race for the White House with little more than a month remaining.
In a campaign now unfolding across more than a dozen states, the decision allows McCain’s resources to be sent to Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and other more competitive states. But it also means Obama can shift money to other states like Virginia, Colorado and North Carolina where he is trying to eat into traditional Republican territory.
By pulling out of vote-rich Michigan, McCain conceded a large part of the electoral map in the heart of the industrial Midwest.
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I still cannot figure out why the McCain campaign would publicize this at all. It serves no purpose other than to dishearten his supporters.
obama conceeded minisota.
obama has abandoned a number of states now.
I think it was Mark Steyn who said yesterday that McCain has terrible judgment about how to campaign. He should have had Sarah interviewing on every radio station in Michigan during the last two-three weeks, where she could be heard by millions of local voters who would have been very impressed by her.
But instead he had her interviewing with Charles Gibson and Katie Couric, both of whom would be happy to see her drop dead in front of them, and from whom no one could expect an objective interview. Steyn said McCain's a media snob who has contempt for flyover-country radio stations and the new media. His point made sense to me.
Sarah just said on Rush she will go to Mich. problem solved.
Now we once again have a fighting chance.