Mitt's Hitting The Road For A Bus Tour

Interesting itinerary.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday announced a five-day bus tour through six battleground states, beginning with New Hampshire on Friday. The likely Republican nominee will meet with families and business owners in small towns in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan, where he will focus on what he calls President Obama’s failed economic policies.

Let's see....what do all those states have in common? Why, I believe they are all states one Barack Obama won in 2008.

Now it's obvious that Mitt needs to flip some states that Obama won last time for him to win but Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan are certainly states that Obama didn't think he'd have to be playing defense in.

Many successful Presidents actually win over new states during their reelection bids. Obama on the other hand has already likely lost North Carolina and Indiana from his 08 column.

Not all of these states will be in play come fall. It's June so it's cheap for Mitt to test the waters, make Obama worry and make him spend some time and money in his backyard. Still, enough "doing fine" cracks from Obama (along with not fine at all growth and unemployment numbers) with a little early attention from Romney could nudge some of these states into the competitive zone for Team Romney come fall.

Either way, Mitt is expanding the playing field beyond traditional swing states that happened to have gone blue in 08 while Obama isn't even thinking of winning any new states, he's just trying to hang on to enough of his other states to stay in office.

Not a bad position to be in for the challenger.

posted by DrewM. at 12:31 PM

| Access Comments