when i close my eyes, do the obama campaign offices disappear?

the obama campaign now has 29 offices in indiana. that's a lot for a state that's traditionally been considered "red", so instead of trying to compete, the state's republicans continue to pretend that the obama offices don't exist:

[S]tate GOP chairman Murray Clark issued a statement calling Obama's Indiana campaign "the most cynical, artificial presidential campaign in Indiana's history."

Clark described Obama's relatively many local headquarters as "bogus storefront offices."

calling the obama campaign "cynical" is rich, considering the core of the mccain campaign so far has been to try to portray obama as paris hilton with a penis. but i'm glad the state GOP has officially picked up on this ridiculous idea—pushed by right-wing blogs and already proven false—that the obama offices are fake. because while republicans continue to plug their ears and cover their eyes, obama's volunteers are out there working hard to paint the state blue. and even if they aren't successful enough to give indiana's electoral votes to obama, all those new obama voters will go to the polls and vote for other democrats.

of course, this republican denial is really a form of projection, because it's actually the mccain campaign that's non-existent in indiana. it's easy to find news stories about obama offices bustling with volunteers, many of whom say "This is the first time I'm voting Democrat". good luck finding similar stories about hoosier mccain volunteers. mccain's indiana "headquarters" can't even be bothered to return their phone calls:

A call to McCain's Indiana headquarters, also listed as the Indiana Republican Party on www.johnmccain.com, was not returned Saturday.

at least gary welsh seems to have given up on the if-i-can't-see-it-it's-not-there routine. always on the lookout for new reasons to hate obama and ignore mccain, gary has now latched on to a report that obama has pulled ads in indiana during the convention. most of us might recognize that the operative words here are "during the convention"—obama will be getting plenty of tv time this week without buying ads—but gary takes this as evidence that "Obama's 50-state strategy has been scrapped for a traditional battleground state approach". does gary think obama will suddenly shutter all those indiana campaign offices? or is he still clinging to the fantasy that they aren't real? ¶