As Mr. McCain enters this closing stretch, his aides — as well as some outside Republicans and even a few Democrats — argue that he still has a viable path to victory…
Mr. McCain’s advisers said the key to victory was reeling back those Republican states where Mr. Obama has them on the run: Florida, where Mr. McCain spent Thursday; Indiana; Missouri; North Carolina; Ohio; and Virginia.
Oh, gee, is that all?
If he can hang on to all those states as well as others that are reliably red, he would put into his column 260 of the 270 electoral votes necessary to win.
*would spit coffee, if I drank coffee*
They need to do all of that and it doesn’t even get them to 270?
Mr. McCain’s advisers said they would look for the additional electoral votes they need either by taking Pennsylvania from the Democrats, or putting together some combination of Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
It’s so sweet of the Times to try and provide balance.
In the latter box, Obama only needs Pennsylvania to win. McCain would have to win all of them. His best shots are probably Nevada and New Hampshire, but those don’t add up to Pennsylvania. Or Virginia. And we are now seeing polls indicating a dead-heat or even an Obama lead in places like Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, Georgia and Arkansas. It’s not a done deal, yet, but I think it’s worth noting that in the wake of these most recent polls, FiveThirtyEight.com has downgraded McCain’s chances of a win to 3.7% today.