Anyone got a coupon?

Obama is outspending the bejeezus out of McCain. According to Fox News the totals are $17.5 million being spent by the Ciggy McUnicorn and only $10 million being spent by the McCain/RNC conglomerate. But as important as total expenditure is, so is spending it in the right places.

Marc Ambinder was kind enough to provide us a table to break the spending down by state.


As we've discussed before here on 3BP, there are some states McCain needs to focus on moreso than others.

Based on that understanding and the table provided by Marc, the following is a breakdown of how I think spending must change over the course of the next week:

CO: Spending is closer than I imagined. Need to step it up slightly.
FL: Need to step it up slightly, but good to see such a small margin in the polls considering that spending gap.
IN: Keep that up. Indiana will come back to McCain on its own.
IA: STOP SPENDING. (RCP average is Obama +9.5)
MI: Stopped spending already.
MN: STOP SPENDING!!! ((RCP average is Obama +10.5)
MO: May need to bump it up a bit.
NC: Bump it.
NH: Status quo...just in case things start closing up.
NM: Ditto.
NV: Bump it up slightly. Obama has failed to create a serious gap here which tells me it can slide back without much effort.
OH: Expensive state to buy in. 3 markets. Status quo.
PA: Almost a lost cause. Scale back considerably.
VA: Bump it up considerably.
WI: STOP! (RCP average is Obama +8)

The time is now to cut your losses and focus on what you can and need to win in order to hit 270. This thing is still very winnable. State polls in the states John needs to win are still relatively close.

One thing is for sure, 3BP readers...don't waste your time looking at national polls this late in the game. As you learned in 8th grade(unless you're Al Gore)...the popular vote means squat.