Mitt Romney's rhetoric about winning Pennsylvania today really came out of left field. This is the best and clearest example yet of the internal belief of the Romney campaign that end times are at hand (the other strong sign is the new emphasis on Romneycare).
There is a stench of desperation when a campaign abruptly reverses course, and since Romney had no ad buys and hadn't held rallies in PA for months, this is an obvious 180. Why this move?
Romney must be thinking the following:
1) Pennsylvania is within theoretical reach. A minority of (questionable) polls show the state within a couple points.
2) Ohio is fading fast and so is Iowa. Giving these two states to Obama, he could afford lose NC, FL, NH, NV, CO, and VA and still win the election.
3) Without both Ohio and Iowa, Romney has no good chance to win unless he finds a large number of EVs in "non-swing" states.
4) Michigan, the only other potential pick-off, is even further beyond reach, would make the auto bailout a major focus of the final five weeks, and push Ohio even further away.
To me, this logic shows that Romney's campaign deeply believes that Iowa and Ohio are close to lost causes. A move to the relative center, in terms of embracing Romneycare, is compatible with the belief that Romney's campaign knows they need to pick off a solid blue state. Basically, they know the whole playing field has shifted and this is the hail mary pass.
Good luck with it, Mitt.