This is not the score of a lopsided basketball game. That’s the number of events Obama/Biden have made in swing states compared to McCain/Palin. From the Wall Street Journal:
Sen. Barack Obama, his running mate and his wife have appeared at twice as many events in swing states as their Republican counterparts, which may help explain the Democrat’s lead in many battleground-state polls.
In the five weeks since the fall campaign officially began, Sen. Obama, his wife, Michelle, and vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden have appeared at a total of 95 separate events in states that both sides are contesting.
Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have appeared at 55 events in those areas, with Cindy McCain, the nominee’s wife, adding only one more to the total, according to a Wall Street Journal tally based on schedules provided by the campaigns.
Stopping By Swing StatesSee how many times the candidates, their running mates and their wives have stopped by hotly contested battleground states.
The gap makes a difference in the amount of press that each ticket gets in critical markets — and is mirrored by a similar disparity in TV advertising. Sen. Obama outspent Sen. McCain and the Republican National Committee on ads in 15 states for the week ended Oct. 4, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project, an initiative at the University of Wisconsin. The Republicans spent more in just two states.
The effect: The Democrats are being seen much more often, in free news coverage and in paid advertising, in the states that will determine the winner.
The article also includes a handy chart keeping track of both campaigns’ ad spending in key swing states. Obama is outspending McCain in all of them (in some cases, by a rate of nearly 4 to 1) except Iowa and Minnesota.
Icepicks and Nukes 