Mr. Sunshine State

Things are looking swell enough for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but the race is tight — if he goes down tonight in Florida it will have happened for two reasons: money and money. Let’s assume the polls are right and a McCain defeat means a Mitt Romney victory. Romney, McCain’s extremely wealthy opponent who happens to have more delegates as of today, bought 4,475 television advertisements in the Sunshine State to McCain’s 470, according to The Boston Globe. You read that correctly, his rival’s airwave saturation was almost 10-1. Even Rudy Giuliani aired 3,067 ads there, but we know he has been living there, so not such a fitting comparison.

Anyway, the place is rather large and matching your rival in air power seems necessary. Another thing about Florida, people are hurting there too. You would think McCain would have taken the jolt of Romney’s Michigan win, as well as the news of a national recession, into consideration before contesting the ultimate battleground state without a strong message on the economy. But no. McCain, according to Time magazine, told reporters yesterday that “even if the economy is the quote ‘number one issue,’ the real issue will remain America’s security … and if [voters] choose to say, look, I do not need this guy because he’s not as good on home loan mortgages or whatever, I understand that. I will accept that verdict.”

Should he win, McCain’s staff might be wise to sneak “It’s the Economy, Stupid” into a few strategy sessions as he heads into Feb. 5 to capture the nomination and ultimately a general election for the presidency. Whoever the Democratic nominee is, undoubtedly lacking McCain’s unbeatable national security credentials, she or he will be sure to keep the conversation on that economy, day in and day out. If they didn’t, that would be stupid.

***
AFTER TONIGHT’S RESULTS, SEND YOUR FEB. 5 QUESTIONS to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. My next video Q & A is on Thursday, Jan. 31. I look forward to hearing from you.