If you were Romney ...

[golden]

If you were Romney which were the five 2008 red states where you'd invest the most campaign money?

[JulioMadrid]

Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

[5280/East California]

Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

[Big Wiggly Style]

Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

[Comrade Shmoo]

Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

And then there's the one person who said North Dakota.

[politicus]

Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho, obviously

Nah... I will have to go with the same 5 boring choices that everybody else has already said. Its kind of a no brainer.

[Zioneer]

Same as everyone else except I put Kentucky in place of Montana. Mostly because Kentucky is more electoral votes than Montana; I don't think Romney is going to waste time and money on a "small" state like that.

[BaldEagle1991]

Why not Texas? The Hispanic vote is what he is trying to get.

[Supersonic]

Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

[Big Wiggly Style]

Why not Texas? The Hispanic vote is what he is trying to get.

The Hispanic vote won't impact the state enough to throw it in Obama's favour. If Ted Cruz, who is Hispanic, gets nominated and subsequently wins the Senate seat, I could see a fair amount of Hispanics voting for Romney.

[BlueSwan]

With the possible exceptions of Arizona and Missouri I would spend next to nothing on those states. If those states are in play, he's doomed anyway. He needs to focus very much on Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Iowa. Those are the states he needs to win over (aside from Indiana, which I think is a given).

[5280/East California]

We'll see what happens in a few months on which states he focus on.

[bore]

Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

And then there's the one person who said North Dakota.

I said North Dakota because its a very cheap state to spend in, and more importantly has a competitive senate race which a good Romney GOTV campaign could help to flip.

[Odysseus]

Texas, Georgia, Arizona, South Carolina, Missouri.

[Platypus]

The top 4, but Texas instead of South Carolina, just because it's so crucial to him having any chance of winning.

[cope1989]

Look, I'm just gonna say it. Right now, this election is not close, even though the chatter is that it's shaping up to be some sort of a nail biter. If Romney is fighting to win states like North Carolina and Virginia as well as the traditional battlegrounds, it's looking very very good for Obama.

Let's think back to what a truly close election looked like, which was 2004. If Obama and Romney were neck and neck in states like Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, then yes, it would be a close race. But pretty much all the good polls, with the exception of a few outliers, show that these states are very likely to vote Obama. If we're still talking about NC, VA, AZ, and MO, then we're not talking about a true race yet.

Not saying it couldn't shape up to be very close, but my money is on a solid Obama victory.

[pbrower2a]

Georgia (I missed it) and Missouri, of course, because they are electorally large and were either very close or close. Arizona because it will be close in the absence of a Favorite Son this time. Nebraska at large is safe, but two of the congressional districts and hence two electoral votes are not.

If Mitt Romney has to spend more than nominal money in Texas he is cooked and knows it. Texas is roughly the difference between 410 and 450 electoral votes for the President. It is Texas and it will draw GOP money.