To the ramparts Montana GOP!

RNC Takes to the Airwaves in Montana (!)

The Republican National Committee will begin running television ads in Montana beginning on Wednesday, a sign of how heavily the playing field is tilted against the GOP with just eight days left in the presidential election.

Montana has been a Republican stronghold for years at the presidential level. President George W. Bush carried it with 59 percent in 2004 and a similar 58 percent four years earlier. It's worth noting, however, that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton carried Montana when he ran for president in 1992 -- thanks to Ross Perot taking 26 percent of the vote.

From Chris Cillizza at the WaPo comes word that the Republicans are dumping money into Montana in an attempt to stave off a surge in Obama's numbers. I'm no statistical electoral mathematician, but if you are spending money to defend Montana and it isn't from super sentient buffalo hordes or a Canadian incursion, you probably are wasting money. Granted, you could probably buy ten trillion ads in Billings for what it costs to run one in New York City, but it's wasted money nonetheless.

Not that I'm one to tell the RNC how to spend its money, but maybe you would like to spend a couple hundred thousand on McConnell, Chambliss, and Wicker, who are the three within the margin of error that could give the Democrats a 60 seat majority. I don't know, maybe you hate guys named Saxby and really want to stick it to McConnell for giving you a dutch oven at the last GOP sleepaway camp. But from polling, it looks like any parity in Democrat/Repuplican turnout results in losses for these three and the prospects of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid starting to think they can get actual liberal agenda stuff passed, like single payer health care. Maybe you just think it's worth defending McCain in Montana so that he can cross the finish line a week from now with 100 electoral votes. The boy's ego is gonna need a boost. Keep pumping dollars into Montana, I'm sure all that time David Axelrod spends laughing about it is time he could have spent making you contest Mississippi.