McCain Puts His Chips on PA, WI, and MN

clipped from www.politico.com Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) now must win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Minnesota in order to get enough electoral votes to win the presidency, his campaign says.  Those were considered swing states in 2000 and 2004, but George W. Bush lost them both times.  “Our ability to pick off one of those three states is where our fortunes are largely held,” a McCain official said. “These are states where Barack Obama is on the defense.”  McCain has very limited ways to win, with no room for error. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) still has many routes to the White House and so can afford to campaign on a much broader playing field.  McCain figures that winning one of those three big remaining swing states, plus those he considers safe, would put him 10 shy of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.  “We can dig up an additional 10 electoral votes in Nevada, Colorado and New Hampshire,” the official said.

The problem with this strategy is that it's insane. Minnesota, for example, is so far from competitive that Politico's swing state map doesn't even list it anymore.

I went to Electoral-Vote.com and got these numbers -- McCain is the lower number in each case:

Minnesota - 54%-43%
Pennsylvania - 50%-43%
Wisconsin - 49%-43%

Maybe PA and WI make sense, but MN? Seriously, I don't see the reasoning.