Obama targets fourteen Bush states for general election

The Politico reports today that Barack Obama has released a list of Fourteen states that voted for George W. Bush in 2004 that Obama will campaign heavily in. Unfortunately Mississippi did not make the list. The states chosen were look at both in terms of the presidential race as well as any down-ticket local races that Obama might help win for the Democratic Party.

The list was broken into two tiers. The top tier consists of four states where polling shows Obama is ahead or barely behind.

1. Iowa
2. New Mexico
3. Ohio
4. Nevada

The next tier are states that are certainly within reach. Obama is ahead in several of these states in various polls.

1. Colorado
2. Missouri
3. Florida
4. Virginia
5. North Carolina
6. Monata
7. North Dakota
8. Indiana
9. Georgia
10. Alaska

If you have not already, make a donation to the Obama campaign. He is going to need the money to expand the map. Interesting note from deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand,

Skeptics have questioned Obama’s chances in states ranging from Montana, where Obama’s support of gun control is unpopular, to those in the South, where racially polarized voting patterns could undermine his chances. Some have suggested his broader playing field is a kind of “head-fake,” a maneuver designed to force McCain to spend money and time on states Obama doesn’t really think he can win.

Hildebrand dismissed that suggestion.

“We’re going in to win those states,” he said. “We’re not going in to make McCain have to pay attention to them. We’re going in to win. The result of that is he’s going to have to pay serious attention to them where he otherwise might not have to.”