McCain Scaling Back Final 72-Hour Push

Image from source, FiveThirtyEight

This is good news for Barack Obama. One of the not-so-secret weapons of the Republican party is the "72-hour plan," which is a strenuous effort to get out the Republican vote, in the last three days of the campaign. It's probably what shifted the numbers (originally in his favor) against John Kerry in 2004, and also sealed Al Gore's fate in 2000.

But the cash-strapped John McCain campaign apparently thought that an ad buy was more urgent than the 72-hour push. Good.

[Excerpt]

The Big Empty

. . .The vaunted, 72-hour plan that President Bush used to mobilize voters in 2000 and 2004 has been scaled back for McCain. He has spent half as much as Obama on staffing and has opened far fewer field offices. This week, a number of veteran GOP operatives who orchestrate door-to-door efforts to get voters to the polls were told they should not expect to receive plane tickets, rental cars or hotel rooms from the campaign. . .

Read more at: FiveThirtyEight.com