This Tuesday, NY Mag pencil Jonathan Chait submitted that Romney was trying to bluff his away into the White House by adopting a posture of superiority to build electoral momentum. Chait writes again this morning that Obama does indeed have a persistent lead in the electoral college, but its “rests on very narrow advantages.” What about Nevada, which is flooded with Dem. cash?
Romney can certainly win without Nevada’s six electoral votes. He would have to either win Ohio or sweep nearly every other contested state. It’s plausible to believe that we may really be looking at a scenario like that. But it’s very hard to imagine that Nevada is part of the equation. So when Romney’s campaign strategists say they’re “ahead” in Nevada, it strongly suggests that they are not holding a pair of pocket aces — their leaks about internal polling and the electoral map are a cultivated plan to project a false optimism. Or, as the New York Times reported today in an odd confession of the strategy, “Cultivating the image that he is a winner, his aides say, could be Mr. Romney’s best strategy for actually winning.”
