Big Spending Not Paying Off for McCain in Key States

John McCain is outspending Barack Obama by a wide margin in traditional battleground states such as Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa, Talking Points Memo reports. The good news for Obama is that McCain has little to show for it in the polls in those states. But the Democrat has troubles of his own: In seven states being virtually ignored by McCain’s advertising, Obama has seen little or no boost.

“The concern for McCain is that he's outspending Obama” in the 11 states in a way “that's not going to be sustainable,” says an analyst. “But he's not building any real leads in these states.” Overall, the two campaigns are spending about the same amount on advertising, but Obama’s covering more ground and thus devoting less cash to each state, TPM notes. (More John McCain stories.)