NYT, pg1, lead story: End of Battle Centers on Turf Bush Carried; "increasingly dire" for GOP

[DeepModem Mom]

End of Battle Centers on Turf Bush Carried
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY
Published: October 26, 2008

Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama are heading into the final week of the presidential campaign planning to spend nearly all their time in states that President Bush won last time, testimony to the increasingly dire position of Mr. McCain and his party as Election Day approaches.

With optimism brimming in Democratic circles, Mr. Obama (presented) on Monday what aides described as a summing-up speech for his campaign in Canton, Ohio, reprising the themes he first presented in February 2007, when he began his campaign for the presidency.

From here on out, Mr. Obama’s aides said, attacks on Mr. McCain will be joined by an emphasis on broader and less partisan themes, like the need to unify the country after a difficult election.

Mr. McCain has settled on Pennsylvania as the one state that Democrats won in 2004 where he has a decent chance of winning, a view not shared by Mr. Obama’s advisers.

But Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, are planning to spend most of their time in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, and Indiana, all states that Republicans had entered the campaign thinking they could bank on....

While some Republicans said they still had hope that Mr. McCain could pull this out, there were signs of growing concern that Mr. McCain and the party were heading for a big defeat that could leave the party weakened for years....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/us/politics/27campaign.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all