Obama: 'Enthusiasm gap' works his way

by Mark Silva

For all the ups and downs of the presidential contest lately, Barack Obama's campaign maintains that the Democrat will cross "the enthusiasm gap'' to victory in November.

His campaign cites Republican John McCain's showing in Jacksonville, Florida, today - with a crowd of about 3,500 in a hall that could hold many more - as well as Obama's appearance today before the campaign's claimed nearly 6,000 in Grand Junction, Colo. (pictured here by the AP's Chis Carlson.)

"It is pretty clear that this race has settled into a pretty tight matchup across the country,'' Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in a call with reporters in Florida today. "Sen. Obama has settled into a pretty good position in a number of battleground states, including Florida'' - where the latest polls portray McCain gaining more of an advantage.

In the end, he said, this campaign "will be waged on our turf'' - on the question of who is best prepared to deliver change to Washington. McCain has gone a long way toward appropriating that turf lately - advancing his running mate, Sarah Palin, as a reformer. The Obama camp takes that as "a pretty good indication that Sen. McCain has decided he needs to win this campaign on Sen. Obama's turf.''

All this talk plays out as McCain campaigned today in Orlando and Northeast Florida, a place where he once served in the Navy and once drew crowds spilling around the corner for a campaign book-signing - and will again campaign tomorrow in Tampa. Obama, who has opened nearly 50 field offices in the state, plans to campaign there this weekend.

McCain was in Jacksonville today, Earnest notes, and "there were more than 10,000 empty seats staring him back in the face.'' It may have been a bad venue call -- hiring the Veterans Memorial Arena -- for a campaign that drew pretty much the sort of crowd to which it is accustomed, according to Newsweek's roving "Stump'' reporter on the scene:

"How did he do today? According to the campaign, about 3,500 people turned up to see McCain this morning at a downtown Jacksonville arena,'' Andrew Romano wrote in Stump. "In other words, it . But alaswasn't a Palin crowd, but still a pretty sizable crowd for McCain, the GOP nominee won't be alone for long. According to the campaign, McCain and Palin will meet back up in Ohio tomorrow, for a rally in Vienna. They'll hold a joint town hall--McCain's turf--in Michigan on Wednesday and another rally in Iowa on Thursday.''

So in other words, McCain "flying solo,'' will soon regroup with the real crowd pleaser: Palin.

Yet Obama campaigned in Republican territory today as well, his camapign says, and "Sen. Obama attracted... a crowd twice as big.'' They're claiming nearly 6,000.
Lt. Wayne Weyler of the Mesa County Sheriff's Office put it at 5,800.

McCain "has to win Florida in order to become the next president of the United States,'' Earnest says of the state that handed President Bush a disputed 537-vote margin in 2000 and with that a razor-thing electoral victory and the White House. "That's why we are spending so much time here in Florida.''

Sen. John McCain and wife wife Cindy at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena Monday -- "10,000 empty seats staring back?" (AP Photo by Don Burk)