Obama Campaign Abandons North Dakota

In a completely unsurprising move, the Obama campaign is closing down its operations in North Dakota. There was really never any chance of Obama taking North Dakota; with money tighter it is to be expected that he would focus on battleground states. Dreams of a 50-state strategy have long since evaporated.

So the focus on battleground states is not surprising. What I do find noteworthy is to where the staffer in North Dakota are being transferred.

An Obama spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, confirmed Sunday that the campaign's 11 North Dakota offices are being shut and its staffers dispatched to Minnesota and Wisconsin, where recent polls have shown a tight race between Obama and Republican John McCain.

Minnesota? Minnesota last supported a Republican candidate in 1972 and has only done so three time since 1932. Wisconsin has a little better history, but has gone Democratic since 1988.

Are these two states really in play? With the inaccuracies of modern polling it is almost impossible for you or I to know. But clearly Obama's advisers think they are indeed in trouble in Minnesota and Wisconsin or they would be sending the North Dakota staffers to more traditional battleground states.

Update: Ann Althouse is doing some photo-blogging of a Michelle Obama speech in Madison today. From this picture of the crowd, maybe Obama does have some work to do with enthusiasm in Wisconsin.


At a very liberal college campus one would have expected a larger crowd.