Wander Indiana

For those worried that Barack Obama was shrinking the map and focusing on the same swing states to make his way to victory, notice that Indiana is in play.

Fast-forward to this week. Poll after poll is showing that Indiana is in play. Joe Biden is going to be in the state tomorrow. Obama's Campaign for Change has upwards of 30 field offices open statewide. Faced with the undeniable fact that Indiana is receptive to Obama's message -- or antagonistic toward another four years of George Bush's policies -- what's a guy like McCain to do?

If you answered, "Throw your narrative of inevitability to the wind and buy some ad time," you are correct. Kudos to Jen Wagner for the scoop:

"John McCain's presidential campaign has finally decided to purchase television advertising in Indiana.

Word is, they're putting the buy together as I write this."

As Markos notes, this is a state that went 60-39 for Bush in 2004.

When Obama went on the air in 18 states, most of them Bush states, a few months back, he wasn't expecting to win all of them. He was expecting to stretch the map and force McCain to play defense. That's exactly what's happening. And in non-traditional swing states like this and Virginia and North Carolina, the Obama campaign has a slight edge because the Republicans don't have a time-tested ground game model from the Bush years that they can plug right into. Indiana, over the last 30 years, has never given the Democrat more than 41.55% of the vote. It would be a major accomplishment to pull this out, but Obama is doing so well that McCain is forced into playing defense.

There are also rumors that McCain is closing offices in Iowa, which amounts to a concession of the state. The polls certainly reflect this reality, and New Mexico is headed in that direction as well, with Colorado getting there too. This is still a close election - Pennsylvania and New Hampshire seem to be the Kerry states where Obama is having the most trouble - but clearly the map has expanded to the point where Obama can dip into those still-flowing resources and press a real advantage. And the more states in play, the more chances Obama has to get to 270.