Throwing the election away?

It turns out that, underfunded though he may be, McCain is outspending Obama on TV ads in many, if not most, markets around the country.

Following up on David's post below, why is McCain outspending Obama two-to-one in Missouri?

We had reader reports suggesting this last week. And in response to those reports readers from a number of other swing states reported seeing the same thing -- a flood of McCain ads and only a much smaller number of Obama ads.

When we checked in with Obama campaign, the impression we were given was that this was more a matter of viewer perception than reality. But the Post-Dispatch's reporting makes it clear that in Missouri at least it is very much the reality.

It doesn't strike me that it makes much sense to let McCain sneak past you in the early going. It's a lot harder to change people's minds once they're made up than to win them over to begin with. I hope we're not seeing Obama fall into the trap Lamont fell into after beating Lieberman in the primary. He took a long vacation while Lieberman trounced all over him. Hell, I can understand that Obama may be tired after the long battle with Hillary, but how much effort does it take to air a few TV ads?