Playing on a broad field

With three months until the elections, the Obama campaign is pressing McCain hard in seven Republican –leaning states with money and boots on the ground.

WASHINGTON - Alaska is young. Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia have growing populations and many black voters. Montana has seen recent Democratic inroads, and North Dakota has sent only Democrats to Congress since 1986. Indiana borders Barack Obama's home state.

The Democratic presidential candidate is putting money and manpower in all seven of these states — at levels unmatched by Republican rival John McCain.

For decades, these states have almost exclusively voted for Republican presidential candidates and have rarely seen any campaign action. Now, thanks in part to demographic and political shifts, they are emerging as new battlegrounds.

"We have the organizational ability and the financial ability to compete there," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said recently. "There is not a head fake among them."

That is the kind of talk that makes opponents lay awake at night. Not only does this strategy put McCain on defense in traditional GOP strongholds and limit available resources in places like Pennsylvania and Florida, it will also help swing a few down-ticket races to the Democrats. Obama has proven that he can mobilize and turn out the youth vote and the minority vote, and at times, in record numbers. Add to that new polling showing low-wage white voters favoring Obama by 10 points and you get an idea of just how high a hill the Straight Talk Express must climb.

McCain, already saddled with an uninspired base and a Republican brand not worth the powder to blow it to hell, is now staring down the barrel of Obama’s formidable organizational abilities on his home turf and in a key demographic that McCain must carry to win. Awesome…