As Romney attempts to expand map, Michigan in focus

Updated: 1:57 p.m. ET

Six days out from the presidential election and with recent polls showing a slim lead for President Obama in Ohio, the Romney campaign is touting Michigan as a possible state of play, adding the Wolverine State to a growing list of Democratic-leaning territories where Republicans insist Romney might be able to make a last-minute play for victory.

On Tuesday, after the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future announced a $2.2 million ad blitz in the state, a new poll from Detroit News/WDIV showed the president's advantage winnowing to just 2.7 points over his rival. On Wednesday, the Obama campaign confirmed it would be going on the air with ads in the state.

Now, with its seemingly narrowing polls and a recent infusion of GOP super PAC cash, Michigan joins Minnesota and Pennsylvania as three blue-leaning states where the Romney campaign claims it can cut into the president's lead and expand the Republican's path to 270.

"While the race is breaking to the advantage of Governor Romney, the Obama campaign continues with their desperate and flailing spin in an attempt to explain why suddenly states that were never considered in play are up for grabs," said Romney campaign political director Rich Beeson, in a statement to CBS. "President Obama is playing defense in states that were once considered safely in his column. If the other side was on the move, they would be expanding into states that John McCain won in 2008; instead, they're fighting to maintain turf in traditionally Democratic states."

The extent to which these states are truly up for grabs, however, is unclear: Unlike in battleground states, which have been polled ad nauseum for months, there's a relative dearth of reliable data from which to pull in many of these less competitive states. Democrats, meanwhile, argue Republicans are trying to build "fauxmentum" around Romney's campaign by making a play in states where there's no legitimate prospect of pulling out a win.

"The Romney campaign has found itself trapped in a tremendously narrow and improbable path," said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina in a conference call this morning. "Its desperation is palpable."

Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod, who earlier today said he was so confident Obama would win the Minnesota-Pennsylvania-Michigan triumvirate that he'd shave off his moustache in the case of a loss, argued on the same call that pro-Romney super PACs, which have raised millions of dollars on behalf of the Republican nominee, are throwing money into alternate states to compensate for a possible loss in Ohio.

"I think there's a growing recognition on the other side that Ohio is fading away," said Axelrod. "You see them and their allies in the super PACs heading into three states that they're simply not going to win... As some of you may have seen, I am so confident of that that I put my moustache on the line. And I'm very confident that I'll still have this mustache on November 7th."

"Axe's moustache is safe," added Messina.

Still, the Obama campaign has responded to the Romney camp's efforts by going up with ads in all three states, signaling some doubt about the campaign's ability to withstand a last-minute Romney offensive.

"We basically have had a theory of throughout that we would not cede any states. So if they go in with some force late in this camp in any of these additional states, including Michigan, that we would follow," Axelrod said. "We had a contingency fund set aside for just this purpose."

Lynn Cheney gives a thumbs up as she introduces her husband, Vice President Dick Cheney, before during his speech to supporters at the Bush-Cheney Victory '04 Rally held at the Hawaii Convention Center on October 31, 2004 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

/ Photo by Marco Garcia/Getty Images

Ultimately, bluffing about a candidate's is pretty par for the course at this stage in the campaign: In 2008, Mr. Obama went up with ads in Arizona -- his rival's reliably red home state -- before losing the state just days later, and in 2004, former Vice President Dick Cheney attended a last-minute campaign rally in the solidly Democratic Hawaii in another display of campaign bluster. (Democratic candidate John Kerry walked away with an 8.7 percent victory in the state a few days later.)

The best indicator as to which side's bluffing will likely be best evidenced by where the candidates spend their time in the next six days. If Romney heads to Pennsylvania, Minnesota or his home state of Michigan, it's likely the Romney campaign thinks they've got a legitimate shot there - or that they believe the state is crucial in the path to 270. If Mr. Obama heads that way, it's likely his campaign believes the same thing.

At this point, however, even some conservative pundits believe Romney's latest strategy spells trouble for his campaign: In an op-ed on Politico, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough expressed a pessimistic perspective on Romney's latest play.

"With President Obama maintaining his five-point lead in Ohio in today's poll, Romney must run the table on the six remaining swing states or expand the electoral map. Considering how rough the internals look in this morning's Ohio survey, Boston must know that winning the White House now depends on their candidate stealing Michigan, Minnesota or Pennsylvania out of the Obama column next Tuesday," Scarborough wrote. "Their play in those three Midwest states now appear to be more out of weakness than strength."

The Romney campaign declined to say whether or not the candidate plans to make stops in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, or Michigan. President Obama currently has no announced stops in any of those states.

[mikesfilms]

CONSERVATIVES will be ***** sore with Romney's loss.

They use their rear end for talking and looking at the future. Years ago they were for child labor and no vote for women.

"It is not true that all conservative people are stupid; it is true, however, that most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873.

[bluejacket2-2009]

Michigan is solid Blue, as are 10 other Northern States... it's over Mitt, admit it...

[mikesfilms]

LIE: I'm going to fix the nation. He killed bin Laden and several dozen al Qaeda leaders and built the pyramids of Egypt. He saved the auto industry from collapse and built the Great Wall of China. Check if he had a hand in winning the Revolutionary War. Gas prices will come down if he and pals stop the bomb-Iran blabber. Pinocchio will create 500,000 jobs/month. What with? Bushanomics that's cost 10 million jobs? Now he's going to fix the economy with Paul Ryan's budget and deep cuts to the Rich Tax. His math sucks. Rather, he's going to accelerate the Debt clock, lose millions of jobs, and sink us the way of Greece. Romney a liar? "Yes,"

[misterjags]

Bill Clinton speaking at the University of Minnesota yesterday. Terrific speech. About 35 minutes. Highly recommended. Nobody makes a better case for re-electing President Obama. Clinton begins at about 1 hour, 5 minute mark. Connection's a little clunky:
http://www.livestream.com/theuptake/video?clipId=pla_351ba42c-1e51-4857-89d5-728aa089f221

[alphabet77-2009]

Reagan tripled the debt.

Clinton fought unanimous Republican opposition to pass his budget and had budget surpluses in in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Clinton's plan to cut the deficit consisted of raising taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of Americans, reducing $255 in spending, imposing a new energy tax on all Americans, and raising taxes on benefits of 25% of Social Security recipients. The budget expanded the Eraned Income Tax Credit for low income famlies and reduced their FICA taxes.

Every Republican in both houses of Congress voted against the proposal. The bill was finally passed due to Vice President Gore's tie-breaking vote. Then the House narrowly passed the bill by a vote of 218 to 216. Democrat Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky from Pennsylvania changed her mind at the last minute and provided the deciding vote for the Clinton budget.

Bush took over, and the surplus disappeared. He waged two needless wars, raised taxes on the wealthy and enacted Medicare part D with no way to pay for it. He squandered the Clinton surplus and doubled the debt. With banking deregulation pushed by the Congressional Republicans, the market crash occurred which threw the world's economy into the greatest nose dive since 1929.

Obama took over, put a floor under the falling economy and GDP and got it going back up again. GDP has had 14 straight months of growth since Obama stopped the recession. The private sector gained more than 5 milion jobs, the housing market has recovered, the US Auto Industry was saved, and the stock market is way back up. He also passed the ACA, which has done away with unfair restrictions and exclusions by insurance companies based on pre-existing conditions and lifetime limits, and which the CBO has calculated will save $210 billion dollars over the next 10 years.

Now Romney wants to go back in and enact the same policies as Bush again except worse. He wants to voucherize Medicare, cut 38% from Medicaid and turn it over to the states, repeal the ACA and all the accompanying benefits and savings to Americans, and has talked tough, war-like talk regarding Iran and Syria, and a cold-war like tone toward Russia, calling it our greatest geopolitical foe. Many of Romney's foreign policy advisers have called for war with Iran and supported invading Iraq. Although he now talks like a peace hawk, one cannot trust that he will carry out anything he says, because over his entire political career he has shown a facile tendency to change his stance to fit whatever the political situation dictates.

Romney's numbers in his economic plans don't add up. If we vote for Romney it will be worse than voting for G.W.Bush. He will cater willingly to the neocons and other extremists who are advising or coercing him. He will bend extremely willingly to Norquist and the like, and they wreak such havoc as this country has never seen.

[seabass6251]

Clinton's budget "surpluses" were more made up than Obama's unemployment numbers.

Clinton counted SS payroll contributions as income into the federal budget instead of depositing those funds in the SS Trust Fund as earmarked.

Thus the term, "Clinton math".

[alphabet77-2009]

@seabass: You are denying all the numbers that are published by the CBO, Bureau of Labor statistics, Tax Policy Center, and other respected bodies, a well-known fact, and believe in something you made up yourself in your own mind? Wow.

[saulsteinmann]

Forty three straight months of eight percent unemployment
17,000,000 new food stamp recipients added in the last four years
One in six Americans are now living in poverty
A $16,000,000,000,000 mountain of debt that is growing every day
We can not afford another four years of this "empty chair" president!

[alphabet77-2009]

You blame the economy on Obama and pretend the Bush years and the Great Recession that came then didn't exist. Obama has prevented a Depression and brought GDP back up ABOVE the zero line again, and GDP has increased for 14 straight months since he's been in office.

[Mr_Maz]

@saulsteinmann, the USA has made a huge recovery from the mess left by Republican policies and the economic disaster. If Mitt wins you can wave goodbye to any recovery for the masses, as the only people he will benefit is his multi millionaire buddies.

And how anyone can justify his so called Plan for the economy confounds logic!!! Reduce Taxes (Federal Income) Increase Defense spending (Federal Expense) Reduce Federal Organisations and pass the cost on to individual states without providing adequate financial support, will just increase state taxes, hand power of medicade costs back to the private sector but replace insurance cover with a fixed voucher, should I go on????

[Crotalus9]

Looks like someone knows he's losing and is trying to lob a Hail Mary pass under the guise of "expanding the map." Am I the only one that smells desperation?

[seabass6251]

Obama does seem to be fading fast. For an incumbent to be this close in a race at this point spells doom for his chances of winning the election.

[AJWALTON32]

"When is the right time to restart the campaigns?" I was on MSN.com and saw that as a headline. I understand that just because we have a crisis, it does not mean that life should stand still. I also understand that the election is important and could seriously impact our recovery as a nation from such a crisis. However, I feel that the election can wait. We have millions of people who have been displaced and many have lost everything they have worked their entire life for. Millions without power, millions of people whose livelihood is in serious jeopardy. The people directly affected by this storm have zero income coming in, because they cannot make it to work or their employer is closed due to the storm. Those same people who have little to zero income coming in, seem to have just recently incured the most expenses from the storms aftermath. I guess what I am really getting at is that the presidential candidateshave millions of dollars on hand for their "campaigning expenses." The election is days away, I really think that most of the voters of this country have already made up their minds. So, instead of running million dollar television ads and spending a pile of money to visit a city to campaign in, take the political campaign funds and help those truly in need. I would imagine that if the candidates did this, it would probably sway voters, especially those who are still somewhat undecided. Can you imagine the impact it would have if a political party actually gave back to its constituents, specifically those in immediate need! Last I heard Mitt Romney had accumulated somewhere over $169 million USD, I'm not sure where President Obama is but he can't be far behind, if not farther ahead. If both these candidates were to donate their campaign funds, they would make a huge impact on hundreds of thousands of American's lives. I challenge the candidates to prove to the American people, which one is most concerned with the welfare of the American people, specifically by putting their political gain aside to help the residents of America during the greatest time of need.

[saulsteinmann]

Forty three months of eight percent unemployment
17,000,000 food stamp recipients added in the last four years
One in every six Americans are now living in poverty
A $16,000,000,000,000 mountain of debt that is growing every day
We can not afford another four years of this "empty chair" president!

[kimberper]

More right wing B.S. Here's just a few things he's done, although, I doubt you will read this:
*Signed the Democratic-sponsored and passed Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures. The bill also provided $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness, and to stabilize the housing market.
*The Bush-led Great Recession was costing the economy nearly 800,000 jobs per month by the time President Obama took office. But by the end of his first year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created and sustained 2.1 million jobs and stimulated the economyby 3.5%.
Along with Democrats, and almost no Republicans, implemented an auto industry rescue plan, and saved as many as 1 million jobs. Many are of the opinion that he saved the entire auto industry, and even the economy of the entire Midwest. This resulted in GM returning to its place as the top car company in the world. Willard Romney, on the other hand, advocated for the entire industry to go belly-up.
*Amidst all the cries of Barack Obama being the most prolific big government spender the nation has ever suffered, Marketwatch is reporting that our president has actually been tighter with a buck than any United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

[ArnoldLayne2]

Four Americans died, Obama Lied, and the Press complied.
Then, Obama went to Vegas.

[kimberper]

Not according to your pin up girl Condi