McCain's Plan to Hold Weekend Rally in Obama-Friendly Iowa Is Raising Eyebrows

Politicos in Iowa are scratching their heads over GOP nominee John McCain's plans to hold a rally Saturday in Davenport—not only because the state is trending strongly toward Democrat Barack Obama but because Davenport sits on the state's eastern border and just a short distance from Obama's home state and stronghold, Illinois.

They question why he doesn't spend one of the last precious weekends in Florida, Ohio, or Colorado—much more important to taking the Electoral College vote come November.

"I'm mystified why McCain would campaign in Iowa at all, let alone in the more heavily Democratic eastern side of the state, on the border with Illinois, Obama's home turf," says Des Moines-based pollster J. Ann Selzer. "If McCain thought he could take Iowa, I would think he would concentrate on the western side where, conventional wisdom holds, Bush executed a masterful turnout game to take the state in 2004."

McCain aides have suggested that their internal polling shows that they're within low single digits of Obama in the Hawkeye State.

Averages of state polls have Obama up by more than nine percentage points.

Either way, it's clearly a gamble by McCain, strategists say, particularly this late in the game and in a state where Obama's ascent began with his win in the Iowa caucuses in January.