Race continues to look different from 2004

Obama has purchased ad time in Arizona, John McCain's home turf.  The Obama campaign has said that the ad will be positive, rather than critical of McCain, in an effort not to offend any voters in the state.  In Arizona, polls show that the race has been tightening but is very unlikely to tip to Obama's favor before Election Day.  So what's with the ad buy?  Obama campaign manager David Plouffe says that with a Democratic governor and an increasingly influential Hispanic population, Arizona is worth a try (and after all, they can afford it).

"It's enough in the realm of possibility that we want to put a little extra effort in the end," Plouffe said. "We're just going to give it a go in the last three or four days and see how close we can get it."

It could also be meant to throw the McCain campaign further off course in the last days of the election - McCain was seemingly prompted to appear in Arizona after Obama made the buy.  

The Obama campaign is also venturing into Georgia and aiming for a possible victory based on the support from the youth and from black voters.  Obama is also working hard for support in Colorado, Nevada, and Missouri, all of which Bush won comfortably in 2004.  Ultimately, this is shaping up to be an election very unlike the last two.  States that were once assumed to be easy grabs for McCain, red states that Bush won in 2000 and 2004, have become very uncertain for the Republican candidate.  On the other end, McCain is making inroads in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, two states which voted Democratic in 2004.